#i was away from my tablet though and had to do it via mouse which succked

[uinferno]

For my art class this past semester we had to draw a Mona Lisa remix, so I used it as an excuse to getting better at inks and draw post apocalypse Mona Lisa.

[squeiky]

Love it (sarcasm) when nightmares make an entire set up and lore and characters just to fucking spook me.

Y’all having dreams about being chased and unable to move- while I have dreams of being chased AND being able to move. It is not fun!!! I am a mouses fucking labyrinth!!

I was in this game based off of little nightmares (apparently) and I knew there was this kid (similar to the two boys in over the hill) where one was short and the other tall- and they were sooo determined to get away and be “free” from this prison that all the other children where. So they had this whole battle in trying to steal away the keys, dodging blue berries (like in that little nightmares kitchen scene) and doing platforming (because this is videogame esc)

And then out of nowhere!!! I end up becoming this golden child girlie (based off of I think Emily or Cassidy from fnaf? But she’s got the personality of a little scared yet polite girl and looks similar to that princess in the fnaf sb arcade ish game) then there’s this ice queen, (she reminds me of the fake mother from Coraline the movie) and she’s talking and playing with absent minded or flat out scared to disobey children group (that hadn’t left in rebellion) and she’s all like

“Your going to die, your going to be stuck here, and you (points to the golden girl) are going to GIVE ME THE KEY.”

And that wasn’t a command. It was a future prediction. And I KNEW she was right which scared me because it was fate shit. I knew for a fact, hearing her say that- that she would gain the “key”. (Again, just like in Coraline this key apparently would give her freedom from this nightmarish domain and she could do.. idk whatever she was going to do.)

Then, st some point golden girl starts walking off and gets further and further into the dark untill she found a giant dark door with a keyhole. She opens it, goes inside and carefully tries to lock the door again.

Then idk checks her game specs (this is first person now! This is still a videogame dream.)

Then I look out and see vibrant blue blueberries illuminating in what feels like an almost pitch black cave (this is a maze) and then suddenly there’s knocking on the door-then banging.

And I start to run towards the blueberries- and it gives me a infographic on the side of first person view telling me to “eat/collect” the blueberries.

Apparently I need to collect all the big blue blueberries a (they are the size of the kid itself) turns out, the banging was coming from this ice monster that was all spindly and has like needles for feet and legs and had bits of vibrant glowing blue so you could see where it was in the dark.

It was so fast and I barely could survive. I ended up dashing around randomly trying to loose the creature but it wouldn’t loose. I didn’t even know where I was going untill I found myself outside of a this dark grey castle, only to see the rest of the grey sky. I couldn’t stop there though. I collect blueberries (it doesn’t take long to collect. You have to stay still for a single second and wait until the little circle thing completes.. but it’s very quick but slow enough to scare you due to the creatures speed.)

And like the only thing that saved me from the creature was “turning off the game” via my little tablet I had. Like I randomly she had to swipe out of the game tab- in my tablet in order to respawn and stop everything.

I woke up after opening it up again and getting to scared to play again (because the monster didn’t respawn it just relocated underneath part of the castle and I was easy to spot and out in the open so I knew it would chase me again.

I swear to god there is just so much stuff- like Freddy fazbear was here at one point), soley because I thought of Freddy fazbear and him being all nice and stuff only to go bezerk because of afton and I was just watching him violently trying to kill me through the prison like bars- as well as a scene of him breaking down a door and jump scaring me. But also he’s all like “I don’t in own what I did that sorry 🥺” at the end of it all.

Then earlier on in the dream apparently i was ins chill again- and it’s hard to explain because I can barely remember it- but apperently at some point in the dream I was “shadow the hedgehog” and my friend was this red and black cat similar to the one I screenshot end once off of deviant art.

Though we constantly swapped between being sonic characters and being their human equivalent counterparts. My counterpart was.. not very pretty lol. Apparently “human counterpart” meant like teenage kid who wears a grey sweater to hide the fact that I am indeed, a fuzzy guy all over my very human body. So much little hairs. It was weird. I showed my friend by revealing the truth underneath my sweater (in which the also had worn something, but it was a nice black furry coat that was a little big for them.

I think after that something about the principal came up on the speakers about the vice principal and the principal not being able to attend or not come into school frequently anymore

And I was like “ah long covid/covid” and then suddenly the very sick principal enters the room and starts looking for “shadow the hedgehog” (this is the point where we turn into our sonic character counterparts. Almost everybody around us turns into one too. I think there was a polar bear there) and she starts like lining people up and out of the lunch table seats (lunch room in the size of a classroom. I thought it was a classroom cause there was a teacher but my mind is classifying it as “lunch room” right now.)

And is like “which one of you is shadow the hedgehog?” And I’m just staring at my friend (who is now the black and red cat) and I’m sweating balls. I don’t know what this woman wants with me- and I’m wearing this white mask on so she can’t truly identify me that well.

She looks to my red and black friend and just.. decides she’s me??? And then he just.. goes along with it????????? And once they return I’m all like “thank youuuuuuu soooo much!!!”

I guess I was scared of the principal doing something weird to me (like my principal- from what I can remember was a very strange who tries to be strict but everybody fucks with her. she’s more like an angry woman who wants to be authoritarian. Idk I think she was going to take me somewhere or something- possible to the office? Though at the time I didn’t know so the idea she needed me scared me enough.)

Anyways that dream ended quick in order to make way for my second dream, which I already wrote above.

I don’t remember much of my school dream other than flat white blocks to make up fences and white walls, and apparently that’s how the school looked like. It was like some modern day art or a labyrinth of white blocks and white walls. The only color came in forms of gray.

[this is the end. Here’s a disclaimer: this is a dream. I’m not writing out a story idea or your characters. If anything sound familiar to you- then it’s your brain making connections. Nothing to do with any intent on my part. Remember the words: “THIS IS A DREAM”. I’m just writing down what I recall from it. ]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Documentation Gathering, Sanitization, and Storage: an excerpt from "A Public Service"

[Yesterday, we published my review of Tim Schwartz's new guide for whistleblowers, A Public Service: Whistleblowing, Disclosure and Anonymity; today, I'm delighted to include this generous excerpt from Schwartz's book. Schwartz is an activist whom I've had the pleasure of working with and I'm delighted to help him get this book into the hands of the people who need to read it. -Cory]

Collection

As you collect documents and bring new information to light, be aware that you are in an escalating digital arms race. There will always be new ways that data forensics can identify you, or uncover information based on data that you inadvertently leave in your files, or data that is retained in logs noting who has accessed what files on what network. Recently it was discovered that noise from electrical grids can be used to quite accurately pinpoint when, and potentially where, an audio recording was made. The best way to win this war—or at least to avoid becoming collateral damage—is to work outside the standard methods and find partners who have experience.

Of course, the actual collection of documents has changed dramatically over the years. In 1969, Daniel Ellsberg systematically removed documents, including the Pentagon Papers, from the RAND Corporation in his briefcase, taking them to an advertising agency where he (sometimes with the help of his 13-year-old son) photocopied them, one page at a time. Though this took enormous courage and psychological stamina—and in 1969 all that copying was certainly time-consuming and undoubtedly tiresome—it was also technologically straightforward and relatively safe. As long as the guards didn’t stop and check his briefcase, and as long as no one saw him remove and return the reports, Ellsberg could duplicate the papers undetected.

If Ellsberg was trying to do the same thing in 2019 with physical documents, he would have to be sure there weren’t cameras looking over his shoulder. He would have to make sure that the documents themselves didn’t have watermarks that would lead back to him. And he would have to make sure that the copying method didn’t log his activity. If Ellsberg’s 21st-century counterpart were to take digital documents, there would be many more potential technological risks and traps to avoid along the way.

Take Notes

Before you start collecting documents or even trying to tell anyone about the wrongs you want to expose, start documenting what you see. Jesselyn Radack, who heads the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program at ExposeFacts and has worked with Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden, says the first step is to “just keep your own little record at home in a little notebook.” This should be a notebook where you methodically record everything pertinent to the wrongs you want to expose: everything that you see, everything that you hear, and everything that you say. Do this as often as you can, the same day that incidents occur. Note the time and date of each occurrence. Above all, your notes should always include any complaints you raise and to whom, as well as any retaliation against you for doing so.

This approach to notetaking played a critical role in the big Russian sports doping scandal in 2016. Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistleblower and former doctor of the Russian Olympic team, took incredibly detailed contemporaneous notes that became compelling evidence. The notes included Rodchenkov’s interactions with Russian coaches, officials, and athletes, such as how and when he provided performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, and how the doping was hidden from Olympic observers and their drug tests. Aside from all of these incriminating notes, as the New York Times reported, Rodchenkov also noted his daily activities details such as “6:30, I took a shower, had a smoke, got ready, had hot cereal and farmer’s cheese at breakfast.” These seemingly trivial details helped convince the judges to allow the journal to be considered credible evidence in the court case.

The technology you use to take notes can either help or hinder those who might seek to access and/or destroy any information you have, depending upon your situation. You can use a physical notebook, good old pen and paper, or notes on an anonymous laptop or tablet. But be sure to stay away from making entries at work or on your personal computer unless you are highly technically confident of your computer’s security.

“Documentation is very important,” says Debra Katz, founding partner of Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP and the lawyer who represented Christine Blasey Ford when she was called to testify during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. “We increasingly have people who show up with videotapes of harassment. I’ve had clients who’ve had their iPhone rolling as their employer, predictably, would come in and do back massages or make sexual remarks.” Logs of text messages on phones or even recordings of interactions can be crucial to demonstrating that harassment is taking place. Save logs of all of your conversations and interactions, because you never know how they might prove useful later on.

The text messages sent by Mike Isabella and partners to Chloe Caras (who was also represented by Debra Katz) were used as evidence in the lawsuit that eventually took down Mike Isabella Concepts restaurants for sexual harassment. If you are going to attempt to record interactions as evidence, be sure that you are aware of the relevant recording laws. In some states and countries, you must inform the other party that you are recording and you must obtain their consent to be recorded. These laws are collectively known as two-party consent laws. Do more research into your context before you start shooting video or recording audio as documentation. You don’t want your evidence thrown out of court. You don’t want to be sued for releasing the recording. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is a good place to learn more about two-party consent laws in the United States.

Recommended Collection Approach

In New York City in 1953, a newspaper boy was finishing his day, jingling his coins around, when he noticed that one nickel felt lighter than the rest. When he dropped the coin on the floor, it split open, revealing a tiny photograph with numbers. This turned out to be microfilm that was destined for Soviet spy Reino Hayhanen. In 1957, Hayhanen defected to the U.S., where he exposed the spycraft of the Soviets to the FBI. This included the use of microfilm and dead drops for communication. Though this example may seem far from the world of computers and smartphones, taking photos of documents with microfilm is much safer than taking the actual documents, in the same way taking a digital photo is safer than copying the digital document. In such a case, there is far less potential for a log of the interaction.

The current best way to gather information is by taking pictures of documents or computer screens using a pseudonymous digital device. This method effectively circumvents all of the normal digital surveillance systems that might come into play when you copy data off of a network or onto a USB stick (e.g., logs of the copying or digital watermarking). It also circumvents any logging software that may be installed on your computer. Company or government tracking software can record the actions of taking screenshots or other mouse and keyboard actions. Evidence from one of these loggers was used by the FBI against Terry Albury, an FBI field agent who was sent to jail for disclosing classified information to The Intercept. In an affidavit in support of the search warrant, the FBI cited a number of facts, including that Albury had “conducted cut and paste activity” while viewing one of the classified documents. This fact could only have been gathered by latent logging software installed on his computer or built into a viewing program. By skipping digital copying or screenshotting, and instead simply taking a picture of the computer screen, you can circumvent some of these monitoring systems. Of course, if you are logged in and have a document open, you should assume that there is a log of the access as well.

Keep these tips in mind:

Only use a pseudonymous device for taking photos; never use your personal or work device.

Use a small tablet with Wi-Fi turned off instead of a phone; this way there will be no location information stored as metadata in the photos.

Make sure the photos don’t have any identifying information in them; this could be your hand, your reflection on the computer screen, images of your office, or other identifying information or marks on your computer screen.

Be sure to check the images afterwards for any metadata or accidental information captured, and make sure to sanitize the images if necessary.

Audio and video recordings can potentially replace taking photos, but these types of files can be harder to sanitize.

Be sure there aren’t video cameras that could capture you in the act of taking photos.

Microdots

Do not trust printers. Color laser jet printers and copiers embed metadata in the documents that they print in the form of microdots, which are patterns of tiny yellow dots that are almost invisible to the naked eye. These dots encode information, similar to QR codes. This includes the printer’s serial number, the time and date, the network address, and potentially other information. This data can be used to pinpoint when and where documents were printed, and potentially by whom. If you want to find out more on the topic, research the terms “printer steganography” and “machine identification code.”

Regular and enhanced image of a printed page from an HP Color LaserJet 3700 showing yellow microdots. Photography by Florian Heise, Druckerchannel.de, in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Copying Digital Files

It is nearly impossible to copy files to a USB stick without leaving a trace, particularly if you are using log-in credentials at work or on a company device. Computers and networks are built to track and log file access, transfers, and printing. Do not try to make a digital transfer or to copy information onto a USB stick at work unless you can be positive that this process isn’t being logged somewhere. Use the Tails operating system, or a computer that is offline, when you copy data.

If you must copy digital files, be sure to collect all your information as anonymously as possible: use a shared computer at work (not your own). Do not use your own login credentials. Also, consider your physical location. It is best not to attempt this in your own office, for instance. Gathering information in the office will become even less viable as technology and employee surveillance software evolves.

Aside from the issues around copying digital files, some sensitive documents (particularly from government agencies) come with “phone home” beacons embedded in them or with digital rights management built in, making it impossible to view or print documents if you aren’t logged in. This could be a remote image or link embedded in a document, such that when you view the document, the image pings back to a server owned by the government or creator of the document. This allows the creator to see the IP address and potentially more information about you as a viewer. Microsoft files such as Word documents have been known to have “locating beacons” placed within them. PDFs may also include this type of beacon, though Adobe now tries to notify users before documents call a remote server. To combat this type of tracking, either convert a document to a safe format such as plain text with the command line, or view a document on a computer that is “air-gapped,” meaning that it is not connected to the internet. Make it impossible for your adversary to know you have the documents.

Uniqueness and Backflushing

If you are one of a limited number of individuals with access to the information you are releasing, then no matter how careful you are, it will be easy to trace you. This was the case with Reality Winner. In the criminal complaint filed against Winner, the FBI noted that only six individuals had accessed the document that was disclosed to The Intercept. When this document showed up on the website, the FBI had six individuals to start investigating, including Winner. Her unique trail quickly made her the most likely suspect. One way to combat uniqueness is by increasing the number of individuals who have access to a document before it is released.

Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, described a method that has been in use in D.C. for years: “backflushing.” Before disclosing a document, send it through official channels to as many legitimate places as possible. For example, include the document in a report and send the report to other departments. This makes it so others have the document as well, vastly reducing the uniqueness of your connection to the document. When you disclose the information later on, it will not be clear that you were in any way connected to it.

Another way to combat uniqueness is by gathering the data through a shared digital account, e.g., if someone else is logged into a computer and you copy a file while they are logged in, the document-gathering will be connected to them, not you. Of course, this should be done carefully and ethically, so as not to inadvertently cast blame on someone else. If possible, it’s better to hijack a shared network account. So consider how unique the connection between the information and your identity might be. There is protection to be gained by hiding in the crowd.

Theft and Misfiling

Corporations sometimes lash back at whistleblowers by filing criminal charges for theft of company property. So be aware that by taking documents off company property, you may open yourself up to a legal battle. This was one reason that SOC, a government security contractor, gave for firing Jennifer Glover, a security guard who had been sexually assaulted and harassed at work. Her termination letter stated that Glover had used her smartphone to take a photograph of the daily schedule, an act that they viewed as justifying her termination.

As an alternative to taking physical or digital documents, consider the misfiling technique. Hide copies of documents at work, either by misnaming digital files or by storing physical copies or USB sticks somewhere at work. In the future, you can “stumble upon” the copies, providing investigators with the information. They, not you, would then be removing property from company premises. The bottom line is that it might be helpful to have a backup copy of any important material stashed somewhere at work.

Sanitization

Sanitization is the process of removing, concealing, or cleaning up information in documents before you give them to someone else. Whether the documents you’re dealing with are physical or digital, images or videos, the same general process applies: you should overwrite, obscure, or remove any sensitive information. This process is ubiquitous the world over in redacting classified material to prepare it for release to the public. When attempting this, imagine that you are in a heist film: be meticulous, wear gloves, wipe down surfaces to remove fingerprints, and don’t leave anything that contains your DNA.

For those who are trying to disclose information, the process of sanitization is a little more complex, but there are two goals: 1) the removal of any information that could identify you, such as fingerprints, email addresses, or unique watermarks on documents; and 2) the removal of sensitive information that might harm someone else or have undue consequences if released, such as any company or government secrets or any personally identifiable information. This is where ethics and judgment come into play. Who would be harmed if this information were released? You don’t want to accidentally victimize (or revictimize) a colleague, accidentally reveal personal information that could compromise one’s reputation, or put a field agent in harm’s way.

To sanitize physical items with nonporous surfaces, such as USB sticks or hard drives, wipe them down with a cleaning product and towel. Paper documents and other porous surfaces are more difficult to sanitize. There are a number of techniques for attempting this, but most involve using an eraser and potentially a cornstarch mixture to remove any oils left by fingerprints. If you are providing someone with a device such as a hard drive, remove any serial numbers or identifying information that would make that product traceable, and of course, be sure to pay cash when buying any hardware that you might use. If you must provide physical documents, redact them first with a black marker or white-out and then photocopy them, providing a redacted copy instead of the original.

For digital documents, the process of sanitization can be broken down into two strategies: 1) redaction, the process of obfuscating information within a document; and 2) metadata removal, the process of deleting identifying traces from the document.

Text

Any text-based document (rich text files, DOC and DOCX formats, CSVs, Microsoft Excel files, PowerPoint files, Adobe InDesign files, etc.) should first be converted to a PDF. This can be done on most computers with either “print to PDF” or “export to PDF” functionality. The PDF should then be opened, and each page should be exported as an image and then redacted in image-editing software. Draw black boxes over areas of sensitive or identifying information in the images. Note: If you try to redact the documents from within the PDF, it will be done in layers, leaving the actual data underneath the black boxes. This will not technically remove the sensitive information. Similarly, it is important to use only image formats that do not include layers. If layers are included, someone can later remove the redaction layer and see the sensitive information underneath. JPG is a great image format to use, as it cannot save layers. After all of the images have been edited, they should be either recombined into a new PDF using a PDF viewer or given to someone as a set of images.

An alternative option is to use PDF Redact Tools, which automates those processes for you. It is currently available on Linux or macOS and comes bundled inside the Tails operating system.

Images

Images should be redacted just the same as text documents. Save them in a format without layers such as a JPG. Draw black boxes over any portions that need to be removed, then save them.

Video and Audio

Redaction of video and audio files can be a bit trickier, but the same basic process of obfuscating information applies. For videos, open them in a video editing program and either delete portions of the video or add black boxes over sensitive pieces. Then export the edited video. Audio files should be edited in an audio editor (Audacity is a good free choice), and portions of the recordings can be deleted or replaced with a standard sine wave tone (like a censorship bleep).

Remember, though, that there may be other information in audio and video recordings that isn’t obvious at first glance. Is there background noise or imagery that can be analyzed to determine the time and place it was taken? Are there reflections or other subtle pieces of data that could compromise you or someone else? Be very careful when it comes to audio and video, because so much information is contained in each file that it can be hard to think of every single thing that should be redacted.

Metadata Removal

Of course, if you are simply trying to get a video out, but trying to make it less obvious who it was shot by, removing the underlying capture information might be all that’s needed. This is where removing metadata comes into play.

Example of image meta data created by an iPhone

The image above is just a selection of the metadata produced by one photo taken with a smartphone. The metadata contains the model of the phone, the time it was taken, and possibly the location of the phone at the time of capture (if GPS location was enabled). This data needs to be removed if you are trying to make the photo, video, or any other type of file untraceable.

Before anything else, check the filename for anything that could identify you or your means of creating the image. If you have any doubt—rename it.

All digital files inherently contain some distinct information that identifies them: filename, creation date and time, last modified date and time, and file size. Some digital file formats contain even more information. Microsoft Word documents, for example, are known for automatically saving additional metadata, such as the authors who worked on the document and the names and locations of the computers where the file was saved. Unfortunately, with these documents and particularly with proprietary file formats, it might be difficult or near-impossible to remove all pieces of metadata. Instead, convert proprietary formats to simple open-source formats that have consistent metadata formatting.

Some file formats use standard data wrappers to store metadata, such as EXIF (exchangeable image file format) or XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform). These are used for almost all image formats and PDFs. By converting other documents into these formats, it becomes much easier to delete metadata and know that it is really gone.

To actually remove metadata from an image, a PDF, or a video file, open it with its corresponding editing software and look for options such as “Properties,” “Inspector,” or “Document Inspector.” This should open up a dialog with a list of all of the metadata fields and entries. Delete them all. You will also want to research format-specific metadata removal methods for specific file types. Audio and video files, such as MP3s or MP4s, for example, can have proprietary ID3 tags embedded within them—such as PRIV frames���that make it near impossible to know if they have been sanitized.

Alternatively, a number of applications can scrub metadata from particular file formats. Several applications can remove EXIF data from images, but the Android application “EZ UnEXIF Free (EXIF Remover)” is especially useful for those communicating via an anonymous smartphone or tablet. This application removes all EXIF data, including geolocation, from photos taken with an Android device.

The Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit (MAT) provides a simple interface for stripping metadata from a number of formats, including PNG, JPEG, PDF, MP3, and Microsoft Office Document formats. MAT comes installed on Tails. However, MAT currently hasn’t been updated since January 2016, essentially making it abandonware. Fortunately, MAT2, the replacement for MAT, is under active development and currently in beta. This is a great tool that can be used to sanitize a variety of files, but please check on its current development status online before using it.

Storage

Be cautious about where you store documentation. Never store documentation at work, unless you are following the misfiling method mentioned previously. You may feel that your desk or office is a safe space, but it isn’t. You can consider storing documents at home, but this is an obvious choice for all concerned. In many cases, those who are trying to disclose information have had their houses ransacked and searched by their adversaries, both legally and illegally. If a subpoena is filed, information in your home will not be protected.

A good strategy is to either store documents outside your home or office or give a backup copy of what you will be revealing to a trusted person for safekeeping. Daniel Ellsberg gave a copy of a classified nuclear study to his brother, who hid the documents under a large gas stove in a garbage dump. Unfortunately, while this protected them for a while, the documents were ultimately destroyed by water damage, and Ellsberg spent years trying to reconstitute the information they contained. Instead of your brother, choose a lawyer. In the United States, information stored with your attorney may be protected from search and seizure through attorney-client privilege. Of course, there are exceptions to this, which was the case in the raid on the office of President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen. If investigators can make the case that attorney-client privilege is being used “in furtherance of a contemplated or ongoing crime or fraud,” then they will be able to search a lawyer’s office under the crime-fraud exception.

All digital documentation should be stored on either encrypted USB drives or on an encrypted pseudonymous device, such as an encrypted tablet or a Tails USB drive. Documents should never be stored in the cloud or on a personal computer or device.

Excerpted from A Public Service: Whistleblowing, Disclosure and Anonymity published by O/R Books. © 2019 Tim Schwartz

https://boingboing.net/2020/01/09/documentation-gathering-sanit.html

[ourkarlanicoleuniverse]

Sweet Nothing (MHA Staff AU Fanfiction)

Chapter 9

Warnings: None, swf.

Author’s note: Chapter 10 will hopefully be up later or tomorrow. I’m still editing it.

After my sudden outburst, Aizawa and I barely talked unless it involved the students or his injuries. Recovery Girl said at his last check-up that he would fully recover after four more visits, which was good to hear. I felt bad, but I was kind of relieved that I didn't have to deal with him for very long. I just wanted to keep our relationship professional. I didn't want to get into personal issues or have intimate connections with him. I thought he did too, but I could tell he was rather disappointed that I was completely dodging any chances to talk to him about anything else but work. Even at work, I mostly kept to myself, or I spoke with Lily and Kayama. With some occasional lunches with Iris and Toshinori. There was one time that I left to talk to Nezu about any other issues that erupted from parents and students about the festival and came back to my desk to see an iced coffee on my desk with a pastry next to it. At first, I assumed one of the girls or Toshinori got it for me. Heck, even Vlad sometimes brings me stuff whenever he grabs something off-campus. But there was a sticky note left on my mouse saying, "You skipped breakfast this morning." And I knew it was Aizawa. It helped create a lump in my throat and a sinking feeling in me out of guilt. But I mainly pushed it aside because I had to get ready for my meetings with students in preparation for the Sports Festival. Today was their last session before they had to go to the arena.

I packed up my stuff and grabbed my tablet to start heading to the separate counseling lounge that Nezu set up for the counselor's to use as he starts building separate offices for all of us. It was larger than the teacher lounge to separate the different counseling departments and give them small rooms to counsel students. Lily and I decided to split up the use this week. She got it Monday and Tuesday, I got it Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday was open to both of us. We just split it between the morning and afternoon. On the day of the festival, Todoroki asked to see me before it started. By the time I got to the lounge, I saw him standing outside the door waiting.

Oh god, he's like Endeavor and super early to things. I tapped his shoulder, "Good morning, Todoroki. I hope you weren't waiting for too long?"

Todoroki bowed his head a little, "No, I just got here. I didn't assume that you were still in the teacher's lounge."

"I'm sorry for being late then since you came early. Now let's go in and so we can get to what you wanted to talk about." I gave him a reassuring smile and guided him into the room. Once we were situated, I decided to spark up the conversation. "So, what was concerning you that you needed to come to me today?"

Todoroki played around with his fingers. Despite the boy being awkward and mostly stoic, he still had his moments where he showed nervousness. Most of them being in our sessions. "It's not really about the festival; it's mainly about my father. He's coming to see the festival like everyone else. And well, I don't want him to be expecting me to show off his training and his quirk."

The poor boy never really told anyone about what his father did to him and his family. He only felt inclined to tell me after I told him a little bit about how my family was with my quirk in our first session. Afterward, everything from the arranged quirk marriage, to his brother Touya, and his mother's psychotic break came pouring out of the fifteen-year-old's mouth. He felt that he could trust me because my grandparents saw me as nothing more than a weapon kind of how his father only wanted children to surpass All Might. "Have you spoken to your father at all today?"

"Not yet, but I know he'll want to talk to me between the rounds. I kind of want to use today as a way to prove that I am powerful without his quirk. But I wanted to know if you would do that?" He looked me in the eyes in all seriousness.

"I can't really tell you what to do, Todoroki. I wholeheartedly understand what you are feeling from my own experience. I mean, I never wanted to use my quirk, and I didn't until I went to UA, you know this. But remember that my quirk was my quirk. Not my mother's, not my grandparents. Just like your quirk. Yes, it has elements of your mother's and father's quirk. But overall, it is your quirk; you could do whatever you want with it as long as you're comfortable."

"That's not what I asked."

I sighed and pushed my glasses further up my nose. "You want me to tell you the truth? In retaliation against my teacher and Nezu, I refused to train with my quirk. Even when I did my first work-study, I didn't use it. It wasn't until one of my friends found out why I didn't want to use and told me the same thing I just told you that I decided to look at my quirk differently. So, once upon a time, I used not to use it because I didn't like it, and I wanted to prove that I didn't need it to be a hero." I looked at him sincerely, "It wasn't easy, especially with the way I was brought up with my family. That's why I am saying that it's best to do what's most comfortable but also to distance yourself and your quirk from that of your family."

He just stayed quiet, processing what I said.

"To be fair, I feel that you are efficient enough in your ice ability that you won't need to use the fire half of your quirk. So if you feel comfortable only using that, you will be fine. I just don't want you to be doing this because you're holding resentment over your father." I put a hand on his knee. "The worst thing you could do things out of anger and resentment because that will only bring yourself pain."

He simply nodded, "I just want him to feel some type of pain like he put us through. So he wouldn't be so prideful."

I gave him a sad smile, "Sometimes the most prideful people are the ones that hold the most pain. But I don't think you're ready to hear about that in correlation to your dad." He sent me a small, sad smile back. I decided to joke with him a little, "Don't worry, if the day doesn't come that your dad regrets everything and does nothing but apologizes to you and your beautiful family, I will personally beat him up and risk my Japanese hero license for you."

He let out a small laugh at the thought of his large father being pummeled by his small counselor, "I'll take you up on that offer. Thank you."

"Anytime, kid. Anything you need, just give me a call, and I'll be there." Todoroki got up and left the office. I don't think I fully helped him out yet. Honestly, I just wanted to call the authorities on Endeavor, but I knew with his status and money it wouldn't do anything and that the Todoroki family are just in the same state I was in the U.S. But I at least try to do what I can. I really hope one day he just starts living for himself, though, and not because he wants to anger his father.

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

I managed to squeeze by a few people that came early to the festival to find MIc and Aizawa waiting for me by the arena entrance. Mic gleamed at me and hugged me tightly, slightly lifting me, "I'm so excited that you decided to join us! It was Shota's idea, but I figured since you guys weren't buddy-buddy right now, you would've changed your mind."

I furrowed my eyebrows as Mic put me down and looped his arm around mine, "Aizawa told me you wanted him to ask me?"

"Well, I did after he mentioned that you should join us." He let out a toothy grin. I looked over at Aizawa, who just avoided my eyes and glared at Mic. "You look cute today; I like the sweatshirt." I was wearing my dark green sweatshirt from UCLA that I had since high school. It was one of my mom's old shirts from college that I managed to steal for myself. "Green fits you. Amongst other things."

I chuckled, "Always the flirt. Save that for Iris."

"Iris is too oblivious to notice Mic likes her." Aizawa grumbled.

"I don't think it's her being oblivious, more so naive." I defended.

"Anyways, here we are to the fantastic commentators' booth!" Mic held his hands out, showcasing the booth steering the conversation away from his crush. "This is where we will be for the next... three hours? Or four?"

"Four." Aizawa and I both answered.

"For the next four hours! So get comfy, mi amigos!" He yelled as he got a chair out for me.

"It's 'mis amigos'..." I muttered as I helped Aizawa sit down before sitting down myself. Mic just patted my head, avoiding my bun, and went straight to announcing the start of the festival.

"ALRIGHT GOOD MORNING! Here we are at the beginning of UA's famous annual sports festival! I am Present Mic, your friendly commentator, and I have Pro Hero Eraserhead and Pro Hero Zion joining me." Aizawa and I bid our hellos, and then Mic later explained the set up of the festival and how it all was broadcasted. "Yes, everything is being filmed via the robots surrounding the perimeter of the arena, catching every angle. There's even one in the booth with us. Wave you guys!"

The robot positioned itself right in front of the three of us, and I immediately turned into Aizawa's shoulder, "Mic! You didn't mention we were going to be on camera!"

"Awe, don't act camera-shy, number two! The camera loves you!" He rubbed my shoulder.

"I didn't bring my suit! I'm in my civilian clothes." I moved my hand to smack his away and then bringing it back up to cover my face.

Aizawa wrapped his arm around my head to help, "You didn't tell me either that we were going to be filmed."

"You guys are the smartest people I know; I thought it was common sense." Mic shrugged and then went back to talking, shoo-ing the camera robot away. "I'll make sure the robot doesn't get your face. It will focus on Eraser and me, okay?"

My head was still hiding in Aizawa, "I don't believe you, but fine." I felt a small vibration coming from his chest, and my ears heard a slick hearty chuckle that made my face burn and my heart stop. I felt him squeeze me a little as he did this, like a silent sign telling me that the camera was gone.

"The coast is clear." Aizawa's lips were centimeters away from my ear. His breath tickled the flushed skin, and his voice sent tingles down my spine. No, no, no. He can't still be able to do this to me.

I cautiously moved away from him and searched for the camera. It was situated at the corner focused on Mic as he talked. I looked over to Aizawa, who looked at me with nothing but warmth in his eyes. Damn, don't look at me like that. "I... uh... thanks." I felt my lips curl up nervously as my stomach went crazy doing gymnastics.

"You okay, Zion? You look flushed? You need us to turn down the heat or something?" Mic said into the microphone.

I looked at him, slightly mortified that my blush was that evident, "Yeah, I'm fine! Don't worry about me, heh, heh." Why are you like this?

The blond raised an eyebrow at me and went back to introducing the students to their first challenge, "Alright... Well, is there anything you want to say to the students as they go through the festival? Like any wise words that will help them through the rounds."

Aizawa grunted unamused, "They should look out for the door."

I laughed, "That might not seem helpful, but trust me, it is. I would just say to the kids that do not forget to have some fun. And to not pressure themselves for whatever reasons they have. The festival shows what you guys can do, but it is also meant to be enjoyable for everyone. Oh, and make sure you don't just focus on yourself in the games... Good luck!"

We sat back as the cameras cut to the students at the arena's entrance, struggling to go through the narrow hallway. Most of them haven't really figured out that this was kind of the first test. It's supposed to test your intelligence and strategic skills.

"Remember your first festival, Zion?" Mic spoke up and handed me the microphone.

"Ah, yeah, no one warned me about how it was going to be because I was new to the school and Japan. But I got the hang of it and ended up in first place." I reminisced. "I almost destroyed the arena, though, which made a lot of Japanese citizens unhappy with me." I rubbed my neck, and nervously laughed.

"Oh my god! Zion literally blasted the whole stage of the arena after mimicking Mister Blaster and using his quirk against him with a mix of her energy blast. It was totally awesome! Mainly because he was a huge jerk back then, so we all liked seeing him get a taste of his own medicine."

"Mic!" I smacked his chest.

"He's not wrong. We all did enjoy that fight." Aizawa commented.

"And these guys are pro heroes, everyone." I flatly said.

"We're just being honest. Oh look, your students were the first ones out." Mic pointed at the entrance, and there was Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Kirishima, Bakugo, and Aoyama using their quirks to move ahead of everyone else through the entrance.

"Awe! I'm so proud of them!" I chanted. Aizawa just looked expectantly at them.

"You can't be biased while up here, Zion." Aizawa nudged me.

"I'm just saying I'm proud of them, that's all." I pouted.

Aizawa just shook his head and sighed at me. I decided to withhold my excitement throughout the rest of the rounds. My kids were so talented; I couldn't help but be happy at how well they were doing. The only thing that caused me concern was Bakugo's confidence; it really didn't sit well with the other students or even the audience. We knew that there was bad blood between the hero course students and the other students, especially with Class 1-A, which definitely worried me. Aizawa, however, really didn't care; he always said it adds character for the class. So really, this whole festival is mainly a competition for the other courses to bring down the hero course kids. Bakugo being overconfident, was only fueling the fire.

Midoriya was another concern. All Might gave him a pep talk about how this was practically his debut, which it wasn't, but now the kid has it in his head that he really has to prove himself today. So, essentially, I'm worried that if he pushes himself too much, he will end up hurting himself further instead of taking my advice and toning it down. I hate that the teachers told the students that they had to take this festival seriously because all the pros would be seeing them. Now all the kids are trying to get recruited when they need just to enjoy the festival. When there is no pressure, and they're stress-free, they can better use their quirks. Honestly, the students were going to put in their all anyway because it was common knowledge that the festival was broadcasted. They didn't need to be told that they needed to get recruited due to the festival. But alas, the new curriculum of the first years requires them to go through the same process as second years to be more prepared for their pro careers.

"Could you stop tapping your foot? The noise is a little distracting." Aizawa brought me out of my thoughts.

"Eraserhead, Zion, Class 1-A is super impressive in these rounds; what are you doing to get them to be this great?" Mic asked.

"I didn't do anything. This is all of the fruit of the fires they lit on their own." Aizawa answered seriously and pridefully.

"Zion? What about you?"

"I just give them encouragement." I shrugged.

"Well, there you have it, folks. Eraserhead is a terrible teacher, and Zion is great emotional support!" Mic happily belted out.

"I'm what?" Aizawa angrily asked as I laughed.

"Now, now, I actually think Eraserhead is a great teacher. He pushes the students out of their comfort zone and encourages them to follow their instincts and heart when it comes to their training and studies. All I do is make sure that he keeps doing that and doesn't burn out the students, which he hasn't. He treats his students with proper care and concern. Call it a good mix of tough love and emotional support." I defended Aizawa. "However, I don't think he likes that I pretty much see behind his stoic nature and point out how much he cares about his students."

"That was a nice sentiment, M&M. Nearly brought a tear in my eye. Would you say that he does most of the work involving Class 1-A, and you just piggyback off of him?" Mic teased.

I glared at him, "No. It's a mutual partnership."

"Yeah, I know all the late nights working on better lesson plans for the students you guys do." Mic wiggled his eyebrows at me and smirked at the camera. Both Aizawa and I were ready to throw hands at our friend.

"I might have my license suspended right now, but I am willing to throw you out of this booth if you don't take your commentary seriously, Mic." I threatened.

"OHHHHH, someone's acting catty now." Mic laughed. "I'm just messing around with you, my little M&M." He pinched my cheeks as I smacked his hand away from me.

By the first round, I noticed the students' placement and saw Midoriya was in the first place. Oh great, that's not good. I was afraid that this was going to happen. Now, he's going to know what it really means to be the top hero, even if it's just a festival. I wish you all the luck right now, Izuku. You're going to need it now since everyone is going to be after your spot.

———————————————————————

Master list 😊

Tag list:

@inumorph @thatgirlwithcamera @mel-sanch @multifandoms916

[wordywarriorwrites]

Chapter 13: Settled Scores

Masterlist: The Boss of Brooklyn A03 Link Author: @wordywarriorwrites Summary: When it comes to being The Boss, James Buchanan “JB” Barnes rules with an iron fist. For him, there’s no room for sentiment, and certainly no time for distraction, even if it is in the form of an old flame. Steve Rogers had bowed out of the life a long time ago, but a twist of fate brings him right back into the fold, and face-to-face with a man he once loved. When a game of cat and mouse turns into a matter of life and death, both will be forced to decide whether they’ll be loyal to the business, or faithful to each other. A/N: Bucky Barnes Mob Boss AU. Stucky. For: Star’s Multi-Fandom Follower Celebration & Sherry’s Fall Into You Challenge. Warnings: Language, violence, drug use, alcohol, smoking, explicit sexual content, illegal activities.

As soon as he got back to Brooklyn, Bucky put everyone to work.

The Families were stronger together, and their combination of intelligence and brute force had never failed them before. The business may have been nearly destroyed, but it wasn’t irreparable, and they were nothing if not resilient.

Everyone had expected the fight to come to them. They’d planned for it and were ready for it, but nothing could have prepared them for what actually happened.

The first indicator that something wasn’t right was the sudden, unexpected lift on an offshore account they’d frozen months ago. When Bruce and Wanda dug into it, they discovered the money taken had belonged to Steve, but neither of them could figure out who had gotten their hands on it, let alone where the money had gone.  

Then, a few days later, Natasha found an article in the newspaper. Page six, below the fold, buried beneath the rest of the international news – an abandoned warehouse in Barbados had been blown sky-high. The local authorities suspected foul play, but other than the remnants of what appeared to be shell casings, cages, and camera equipment, they had nothing to go on.

Things went quiet for about a week, but eventually, another bombshell dropped. Barton had been overseeing a product shipment when Sam Wilson was found passed out in the back of a cargo container. Though the man hadn’t eaten, bathed, or slept in days, the first thing he asked for was a meet with the Boss.

At three o’clock in the morning, in the back seat of an Escalade parked by the docks – that’s when Bucky learned Steve had uncovered the truth and discovered who had sold him out. Sam wasn’t able to tell them where Fury and Steve had gone, or give them any names, but he insisted the only reason he was alive was because of Steve.

In the month that followed, there were a lot of whispers, but no actual confirmed sightings. Cuba, Haiti, Dominica, Grenada, Venezuela – it appeared they were hopping all over the West Indies, but nobody could be sure whether they were in pursuit of the betrayer or if they themselves were being chased.

It all eventually came to a head when Bruce uncovered suspicious movement in Tobago. Apparently, several plane tickets to New York had been purchased all at the same time. Since they’d been bought with cash, Bruce hadn’t been able to trace the buyer, but in the end, he hadn’t needed to.

Of all the people he could’ve called, Steve reached out to Thor; he said to expect them in five hours, and asked him to send Sam and Natasha to retrieve them at the airport. Their imminent arrival meant Bucky would get the answers he was owed and get his revenge, but first, he needed to prepare.  

Another day, another grave, and this time, there would be no mourners.

Wanda and Thor had provided the supplies. Tony made sure the police steered clear. Clint ensured those who worked the territory were given the night off and compensated for their troubles. After the four of them made their contributions, they let him alone to handle the rest.

Bucky could’ve easily paid someone to do the digging for him, but this particular hole in the ground was special, and he wanted it done right. The land was hard, nearly frozen solid, but that didn’t stop him; he forced the soil to give way and steadily worked toward making a six-by-six-foot chasm.

The blisters on his palms, the sweat on his brow, the ache in his back, the burn in his lungs and arms – it was cathartic. As the shovel moved and the dirt pile grew, he was also taken down into that silent, dark space inside himself, and he admittedly enjoyed the slow crawl into it.

Part of being Boss was ensuring that what occurred back stage stayed backstage. They always put on a show to distract the public, because what happened behind the curtain was bloody and violent, and those with delicate sensibilities couldn’t be permitted to know or see how shit really went down.

Things had gotten out of hand, and unfortunately, the masks had slipped, and they’d exposed themselves a bit too much. Outsiders had been allowed to infiltrate and rewrite the script, but he would no longer tolerate it. Steve may have selected the time for the song-and-dance, but Bucky had chosen the venue, and he was for damn sure running the show now.

This was his fucking city. These were his fucking people. And he was done fucking around.

When Bucky was satisfied, he tossed up the shovel, and used the small step ladder to climb out. The old paper mill he’d chosen for the meet was vacant and tucked out of the way, which meant there was nobody around to see him ready the center of the factory floor with thick, plastic sheeting. He’d just finished laying it and taping it down when the front doors opened and Natasha stepped over the threshold.

It only took a minute for everyone else to make their way inside, and those sixty seconds were very telling. The dead Senator’s wife and Sam’s little helper had huddled up close, and their expressions conveyed they’d chosen to cling to each other for safety, not warmth. Fury and his crew entered next, and their stoicism suggested they knew what was coming. Bucky fully expected Sam and Steve to bring up the rear, but when only Sam appeared, he looked to Natasha for an explanation.  

“He’s not here, but asked me to give you this,” she murmured. “Said it’s his payment in full.”  

A small tablet in a protective, leather case. Innocuous in and of itself, but once turned on and perused, the contents shook the very foundation of the business. There were dossiers on all of the heaviest hitters in both Brooklyn and the West Indies, and the material had the potential to completely shift the balance of power. On top of it, there were other records, which included detailed profiles on Fury’s crew, along with evidence that proved who was responsible for the debacle that had been his life for months.

Bucky lifted his gaze from the tablet and locked eyes with Fury. He didn’t have to ask if the man knew everything, nor did he have to wonder if the rest of his crew knew they had a traitor in their midst. One look at Sam and Natasha was all it took for Bucky to know they were also well aware of what had to happen.

Perhaps if it had been any other time, in any other place, Bucky would’ve shown mercy, but he’d run out of compassion long ago. He had zero sympathy for the so-called innocent and absolutely no desire to show a single ounce of leniency toward the guilty. The only recompense for treason was blood, and as Bosses, he and Nick were responsible for putting their perspective conspirators down.

“You know what you need to do,” Bucky stated calmly.

Fury said Maria’s name and both Natasha and Sam sprang into action. The rest of the crew gave them a wide berth, and while the other two women had to be forced onto their knees, Maria knelt willingly, and she was the only one who didn’t scream and beg for her life.

Bucky retrieved his gun from the base of his spine and disengaged the safety. He didn’t torture them or allow them any last words, and the only small courtesy he offered was a quick, clean death via a well-aimed bullet to each in turn.

Sam gave Fury his weapon, and though he’d accepted it without reluctance, he didn’t immediately pull the trigger. It could’ve been because they’d known each other a long time, or maybe it was because he just needed closure – whatever the reason, he hesitated, and asked her why she did it.

The litany of excuses was as predictable as it was pathetic. Maria accused Fury of replacing with her with an amateur; said it was her plan that got them into the United States; insisted Nick was the one who screwed it up because he was weak, old, and allowed sentiment to get in the way.

Fury reminded her Steve only got caught because she’d set him up; told her the man didn’t deserve to die because of her greed and jealousy; explained he did what he did in order to save Steve’s life and avoid a war. Maria retorted that Fury was going to retire and leave everything to Steve, and she did what she had to do to protect the mantle that was rightfully hers.

The back and forth went on for some time, and Bucky managed to tune most of it out, but when she said Steve was feeble, treacherous, and pitiful, he couldn’t help but be drawn back in.

“Unlike your precious, golden boy, my loyalties have never been divided,” she spat. “And you’re an idiot if you think Steve’s so-called respect for you will ever outweigh his obsession with Barnes.”

Fury shook his head, but before he could say anything more, Maria shifted her ire, and focused it on Bucky. She sneered that Steve was a chatty drunk, and all it took was a few drinks for him to get sloppy and start blubbering on and on about how James Barnes was, “the one who got away.”

“Bucky, Bucky, Bucky,” she jeered. “You pity-fucked him once, and he still cried out for you like that in his sleep. And I knew – I knew when he caught up with us that he’d crawled back into bed with you. He sold us all out! He’s nothing more than an unworthy, ungrateful, deceitful whore!”

Rage, threadbare patience, and itchy trigger fingers – it was a bad, bad, bad combination, but it wasn’t Bucky or even Fury who decided to finally shut her up.

Natasha tersely muttered, ‘that’s quite enough,’ aimed, sent a knife flying.

Whatever else may have spewed out of Maria’s mouth was cut off, and the next sound she made was little more than a wet gurgle. Blood dribbled down her chin before it bloomed across her chest.

Then, she was gone. Chapter 14: Vortex

Everything: @jennmurawski13​ @nerdy-bookworm-1998​

Steve Rogers: @patzammit @hearttoearth​ The Boss of Brooklyn: @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety @captain-rogers-beard

[yieldingtides]

New Display Tablet Time (Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Review + Manga Studio 5/Clip Studio Paint Troubleshooting)

Hi there! I was asked to make a review for my friend so here it is. I might make a video in the future containing this information, but otherwise take it as you will!

Few days ago, I bought the Huion Kamvas Pro 16 to replace my Intuos pro tablet (2013, old model), and I want to impart some insight if you ever happen to get it. If you have windows 10 and/or currently using Manga Studio 5 and you want to upgrade to the most recent display tablets, this review might be more relevant to you. I’ll be focusing more about the drivers and program troubleshooting than on other specs. Though if you want to hear a more general oversight about this tablet, check out Brad Colbrow’s and Teoh Yi Chie’s review videos since they covered a lot of ground work on its functionality and performance.

Installation

Out of the box, the kamvas pro 16 comes with the tablet monitor, a small box containing information about driver downloads and start-up guide, a glove, a cleaning cloth, the pen itself, and a donut holder that contains extra pen nibs with a handy nib remover. There’s also a USB-C cord that connects to the tablet to your computer or laptop. The cord splits into 3 different ports: hdmi port, usb port, and a port that connects to the power cord. The stand was not included with my kamvas, but you can get both as a set on the huion site or amazon. Otherwise you have to buy it separately.

Before using your tablet, make sure you uninstall any tablet drivers then install the drivers from the Huion site. Follow the prompt, and you’re ready to plug it in.

But which drivers? hmm….

Huion Drivers

For both Windows and MacOS, there's two drivers listed under the Kamvas Pro 16. For convenience, I called the may 24th driver as the stable version, and the July 10th one as the beta or recent driver. There’s some differences with these two versions, and depending on what you choose may or may not affect your drawing habits or performance.

From opening the driver menu, there’s four options:

Press keys! You can customize up to 6 buttons. The stable version doesn’t allow you to customize your touch bar/function button. Thankfully, the most recent beta download allows the option to do so (demonstrated above).

Pen buttons are also customizable. Though you can’t edit the pressure curve like wacom tablet options, I find it’s pretty good. Make sure you deselect windows ink if you don’t want it to interfere with your daily tasks. I had to do it when using my intuos and I assume the same for huion as well. I heard it’s optional from some folks and they had no issue with it. I still recommend turning it off.

Work area is where you can set up your kamvas pro into a mirrored monitor if you like. Out of the box, the monitor is initially set as a second display. For me, the resolution was off so I have to change it in my display settings. Also it’s nice that the monitor is already calibrated so no need to fiddle with it. 

Lastly, the about page, where you automatically land on when opening the driver options. I recommend saving once in a while.. You’ll be able to pull it up in sequential updates via import. And it saves you time and frustration if you accidentally delete the driver off your computer.

Oh, forgot to mention!  There’s a little gear on top to open up another menu. 

The most recent driver includes the “add app” option and you can customize your buttons depending on the program you use. OSD settings is the same thing when you press the function button for 3 seconds, but pops up as window box with common options for most users (such as screen brightness, contrast, and adjusting RGB levels). Hotkey option is just opening the driver menu using a keystroke, and updates are as expected.

You could also make changes with the administrator settings, but so far I don’t see much of a difference from non-administrator setup.

If you want to customize your touch bar and button layout for different programs, download the beta driver for this feature. It’s a similar experience when working on my wacom intuos pro, and I thought it was lacking on its default till I downloaded it.

Manga Studio 5 troubleshooting

There was one issue I found that wasn’t directly at fault from Huion, but with Manga Studio 5. When using my kamvas on the program, the cursor sometimes lags and the pen automatically makes straight lines, to much of my annoyance. I found out after checking the settings that Manga Studio 5 is outdated. Really outdated.  I wasn’t aware of its recent updates since 2014, and while it worked fine when using my intuos and the pen sensitivity was really great, it was impeding my drawing performance. I have to update it to Clip Studio Paint Pro. So here are the steps if you have your old license key, otherwise you might as well buy another copy.

You go to the clip studio download site -> https://www.clipstudio.net/en/dl

Then go to download previous versions.

Choose version 1.5.4.

Open/unzip the folder for its setup, and install CSP.

After installation, open the program then an option pops up for a license key. Type in your MS5 License key and you’re all set.

Your workplace, any custom brushes or settings, will be transferred to CSP and it will work like before. You can go a step further by installing its most recent updates, but otherwise I’m pretty happy and I’m able to draw without worries.

I’m not sure applies newer tablets post 2015, but to be safe, test the current version you have with new tablet hardware and if there’s a problem, updating the program may be your best bet.

Also check your preferences! Under tablet, there’s an option for tablet service. Go click wintab, and click the checkmark that says “Use mouse mode in setting of tablet driver” too. Your settings may be different from mine so test it out how it works with yours and make changes accordingly.

Ending Thoughts

Overall, I think the kamvas pro 16 is worth it. The size was easy to get used to, the pen’s comfortable to hold, the tablet build is sturdy and color accurate to my monitor too. I find it pretty solid for its features at an affordable price. To make use for all its functions, again, I recommend you download the most recent driver.

Some cons upgrading from a wacom intuos pro is the lack of an eraser button at the end of the pen. But after a while, I got used to it and relied more on the custom button settings for erasing. There was also a lack of pop up menu reminders, so you have to rely on your memory on which button does if you customized your programs with different functions (this doesn’t apply to the function button). Also you might feel some heat from this display. I felt it close to the top right, a little above where the usb-c port. But it goes away after a while. Other than that, I haven’t run into any issue with this tablet.

 It’s a good choice for those who work digitally, for a hobby or professionally, and can’t afford a cintiq at its price point. So if you can afford it, get it. It’s good.

I hope this information about the drivers helped you a bit about its functions and with Manga Studio 5 / Clip Studio Paint if you happen to come across the same issues I had. Thank you for reading~

[kenkamishiro]

Ishida’s afterword part 3

Please feel to correct me if there are any mistakes. (source of the afterword)

Edit 1: Proofread for grammar and wording.

My Dream Back in Elementary School

I remember writing “gymnast” for this prompt in the school anthology.

From when I was born up until the first year of junior high, I was very thick and so overweight that I looked like a pig, but I had fairly good motor skills.

Mat competition and horizontal bar were my forte, and I also did backflips.

Though in reality I had no desire to become a gymnast. For some reason I thought that I’d feel guilty if I wrote that my dream was to be a mangaka.

My Junior High School Days

These were at most memories from my junior high school days, but I found it easier to study back then. My parents kept nagging at me to study and study, so I was studious so I wouldn’t have to hear the nagging.

I liked English, so when I was in my second year of junior high I took the grade 2 English proficiency exam, which was the highlight of those days. (Apart from that I don’t really understand English that well.)

My parents scolded me as my grades dropped. I didn’t want to be reprimanded again and so I kept studying.

When I got the highest grade in the school, I happily announced it to my father and he said, “Keep it up for next time.”

Looking back on that, that might’ve been his way of telling me that I did a good job, but back then I thought, “There’s no point even if I do my best,” and so I lost all meaning in studying.

Secondary Education Moratorium Period

I wanted to get away from my parents, so I applied for schools that had dormitories.

I enjoyed the dorm life and I mainly spent my time just playing games.

My grades were beyond horrible, and I was at the bottom of my class. The content I studied in school just didn’t hold my interest.

I also began drawing via the Internet. Although I started out by drawing with a mouse, I bought a pen tablet and began drawing colour illustrations on my PC.

Finding a Job

I began going around looking for jobs, but I ended up not doing anything because there wasn’t any job that I wanted to do.

The only jobs I could apply for required expertise that you could only learn in school, but because I hadn’t been interested in the content in school back then, it was impossible for me to apply.

Left all alone, I fretted over what I should do.

I fought a lot with my parents.

In the end, after being screamed at by my father, I gave up and agreed to go job hunting. My memory is a bit hazy, but on that occasion I seem to have told him, “I’m dead.”

I wonder if it was those words that broke me, because it eventually allowed me to choose a path other than finding employment.

The path that came to mind at the time was becoming a mangaka.

previous || next

[newevents641]

Funny Game Pigeon Characters

Funny Pigeon Video

Funny Pigeon Names

Funny Pigeon Jokes

Cartoon Pigeon Names The Godpigeon: The Godpigeon is a character from the cartoon TV show called Animaniacs. The Godpigeon is a parody of the character Don Vito Corleone (played by Marlon Brando) in the film series The Godfather. The Godpigeon, like the Godfather, also speaks in a mumbled voice. The basketball game allowed players to scan their own faces with PS4 or Xbox One's camera and use them on an in-game character. Unfortunately, the scans could be distorted from simple things like. Walter and Clay Pigeon are two pigeons who talk to Barnaby B. Busterfield III, whom they annoy. Walter is the male pigeon and Clay is the female. Neither of them manages to say complete sentences without each other's help. Walter is performed by Tyler Bunch and James Kroupa, while Clay is performed by Heather Asch. A bean character, also known as funny gummy, in a Pigeon costume, from the Fall Guys game. One of the best character skins in-game is a Pigeon skin. You can customize your mouse cursor with Fall Guys Pigeon. Terry Takeaway is a local character who earns his nickname because he is constantly stealing. Despite this criminality and the fact that he is an alcoholic, he is a good-natured, comic character who Harri considers a friend. Terry has a dog named Asbo, whom Harri likes.

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Pigeon's Home is a game that has been made in 48 hours for the 2019 Global Game Jam. The theme was 'What home means to you'. Instead of creating a game inside a house, someone going back to his home or something like that, we decided to make a game about people who do not have a place to live, homeless people.

Because we meant to make a funny game, we replaced the characters by pigeons and birds in general. The player must protect his fire, since it is the only thing that keeps him alive, by taking down his opponents, and reviving the flame with his wings. Killing the enemies will increase the player's energy and determination, and eventually allows him to use a fancy special attack !

Move the pigeon with Q and D, fire with Left Click, and use E to revive the fire !

Credits

Timothey Delhaize • Character Design & Animation

Antoine Raffy-Vion • Environment Art & Sound Design

Robin Six • Unity Development

StatusPrototypePlatformsWindows, HTML5RatingAuthorRobin SixGenreShooterMade withUnityTags2D, bird, cartoon, Colorful, fire, Funny, Global Game Jam, Singleplayer, Unity

Install instructions

Extract the .zip file and launch Pigeon's Home.exe !

Download

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Whether you live in America or are just an outside observer, you know the stakes are high in the U.S. 2020 Presidential Election. Both sides have a lot to lose if they’re not elected in November. But why can’t the election be fun? Game developers Sassan Yousefi and Hossein Shahbazi are trying to do just that with their mobile game Pigeon POOlitics.

If the emphasis on poo wasn’t obvious enough, Pigeon POOlitics allows you to take on a group of pigeons and poo all over the candidate you want. But it’s more than just a silly political game. Pigeon POOlitics allows gamers to also see how other people playing the game voted. Plus, there’s educational tools in the app to help others learn about the upcoming election.

Pigeon POOlitics is on the Google Play and Apple App Stores now, for the world to enjoy. We spoke with Sassan and Hossein about the game and their journey into game development.

What drew both of you to game design initially?

Sassan: I think of making a game as making a new world. You make the world engaging and fun! You can use your creativity to design and make all of the details of this handmade world. It feels like you are acting as God!

Hoss: I have been a gamer and have played at least a few thousands of hours. I see games as a more immersive medium for storytelling. The same way a movie is a more stimulating medium than a book, a game is even more interactive and stimulating as you affect the world around you.

I enjoy creating things and have made small games here and there when I had my day job as a software engineer. Pigeon POOlitics is my largest project so far and there is a long way to go in game dev.

What did you two do before becoming game designers?

Sassan: I was working for a business consulting and construction company. I worked on indie games in foreign markets as a hobby.

Hossein: I was a software engineer and tech entrepreneur.

When did you decide to create a game together?

We got connected to each other around September 2019 by one of our friends, and we started thinking about the Pigeon POOlitics game. Sassan had the concept of pooping pigeons in mind. We were both enthusiastic about politics and making an impact there through the game became a central goal in our project. After a few months of brainstorming and back and forth, the general idea of Pigeon POOlitics came to be.

What video game inspired you the most as a designer?

Sassan: There are a lot of them, but I can say Royal Clash. When you play this game, you see how great it is designed and how great they have balanced it.

Do either of you have experience with mentors? If so, do you think other up and coming game developers should rely on them?

Sassan: Yes. I have mentors and I think it can be very helpful. Specially if you find some mentors who are working in the game industry. Mentors can help you to see the big picture and make you aware about some small details that you forgot.

Hossein: Yes, I agree.

Did you have experience designing a mobile game before Pigeon POOlitics?

Sassan: Yes. I have designed two games before, but both of them were for Iranian Game Market.

Hossein: Yes, I have a few small mobile and online games for mobile.

Why did you choose American politics to be the subject of your game?

Sassan: I was born and raised in the country without freedom of speech. Even though I was interested in politics, it could cost a lot (prison and even worse) to criticize and ridicule politicians and the government. When I immigrated to the U.S., I loved the first amendment and thought maybe we can work on some fun and political concepts, in the land of freedom!

Hossein: I’ve always been following politics. Seeing the mess the U.S. politics has become recently (Trump’s presidency) made me want to make something right. I started reading a lot more about U.S. politics and writing small articles. Making a politics themed game was another good way I could stay involved in politics and help the younger generation avoid the news bubbles and getting trapped into tribal sentiments.

Talk us through the technical and creative journey of developing Pigeon Poolitics.

From a technical standpoint, we used many standard state of the art techniques in 2D games:

– sprite animations make it possible to incorporate complex mechanics in a straightforward manner. Our characters have many different reactions when pigeons poop on them. Some run away, some attack back and chase the pigeons, some take cover.

– physics based motions give our birds and characters a good amount of fluidity when moving around and getting hit.

Thanks to the modern game engine we used (Unity), we could use those features with ease and develop for both Android and iOS with the small team we had. Hossein was the solo developer on the project.

Reporting via the Feedback Assistant app, found on beta OS versions. Game pigeon cup pong not working tv.

For the creative side of designing levels, characters and bosses, we would start with a brainstorming sessions and over the course of a few days narrow our options down to the few characters and politicians we wanted on that level. Sassan would do a lot of research and come up with dialogues and actions for our characters, their outfits and so forth. He also managed distributing the work to our various graphists and voice actors and keeping things on schedule.

Why did you feel a mobile format was the best idea for your game?

Since we have a political theme, we wanted to focus on people that were interested in politics and this election rather than hard core gamers. So we decided our game had to be in the “casual” category. You know, games that people play on the subway and on the potty. Most people have smartphones, which makes it the best way to reach out to many diverse players for our game and stats.

How would you describe your game to someone who’s never heard of it?

For a typical video game you focus on the gameplay and storyline. With Pigeon POOlitics, it’s a bit trickier. Depending on the audience:

Story: Pigeon’s have decided to get involved in the 2020 presidential election, as it can affect their lives as much as people’s lives. But as they are just pigeons and cannot vote, so they decided to poop on the people and politicians in their rival party.

Game play: You control a flock of pigeons and have to poop on people and politicians in the rival political party. They don’t stand by as you poop on them, they fight back, run away, take shelter and curse at you!

Politics: You know how annoying and stressful politics are? In Pigeon POOlitics you can poop on the annoying politicians. It makes you feel relieved!

Download the Funky Pigeon App for FREE! Available for iPhone, Android, iPad & other tablets too! Includes many unique features - send cards & gifts! 83% of Royal Mail 1st class post arrives the next day. Some areas could take a few days longer Click for more info i. Login or Register. Wonky pigeon download.

Walk us through the gameplay of Pigeon POOlitics.

Pigeon POOlitics is an arcade style game. You play multiple levels that increasingly become harder. Each level is set in an iconic U.S. city and introduces some stereotypical people from that city. The bosses in each level are famous politicians and have unique mechanics. You control a flock of pigeons.

At the start of the level you choose your party by pooping on either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. You continue by pooping on people that are in the opposing party. They change their party when you poop enough on them. At the end of the level you fight a famous politician of your opposing party.

How did you develop the real time polling feature for your app?

Players can choose to share their location with us. If they do, then we count the amount they poop on each party and include that in our national data. Everyone can see the live map in game.

Why was it important to you both to get involved in the 2020 election?

We have never seen such a heated presidential election. We think one of the important reasons that make this election more important is Donald Trump’s character. He doesn’t respect or believe in some of the traditions like releasing his tax returns or conceding to the ultimate winner of the election.

For the first time, the media and politicians are discussing scenarios in which the president wouldn’t leave the White House even after losing the election, would cheat the election and break the system one way or another. Scenarios in which he could undermine democracy. In these dark scenarios, which again haven’t happened or discussed seriously recently, could result in the fall of the United States.

The divide between the people and politicians in the political parties is also at a record high. Never before were the U.S. politicians sticking to their party lines so strongly. People the same, have fallen into their respective “news bubbles” and believe in parallel realities. Some don’t seem to have the knowledge of technology necessary to draw their own conclusions.

On top of all that we have a pandemic on our hands which further complicates the logistics of holding the election.

With everything going on, the mess that the election has become from the people, political parties, USPS, Donald Trump, etc. how can anyone who lives in the U.S. not get involved in the 2020 election?

Did you hit any snags in development? How did you get through them?

Hossein: Way too often! As a developer you need to stay on top of what absolutely needs to be done, what is nice to have and what is a waste of time. You need to know the tradeoffs and make hard decisions on what to implement and when. It is all about managing resources.

How hard was it to get your game on mobile app stores?

They have a review process which is necessary for ensuring the quality of apps in the store. Since the process is manual, it was very slow for our tight timeline. Apparently the pandemic also made the review times worse.

Sometimes it would take ten days to review our new update, just to reject it because there were minor issues with the images or description of the app. We would fix the issue in five minutes, resubmit and wait for a couple more days to see what happens.

Sometimes the reviewers wouldn’t tell us what exactly needed attention. So there would be some back and forth to figure out what needed to be done. Which again slowed down our development process.

How have people reacted to the game so far?

Our fans (mostly politically involved individuals who are open to discussion) have had a blast with the game! The bosses (specially Biden and Trump) have been a hit! They have goofy dialogs that reference the news about them.

Could we see a future edition of Pigeon Poolitics for other countries?

For sure. We think this can be a fun and creative way to make people more interested in politics anywhere in the world. They should have freedom of speech though.

What advice do you have for future app developers?

It is important to publish your game as early as possible and iterate and complete it as you get feedback from your users. If you wait to have all the features to launch, you will be in trouble.

What’s next on the docket for you both?

We aren’t yet finished with Pigeon POOlitics. We may keep adding content to the current game. We are also thinking about more games and probably new versions of the Pigeon POOlitics for other countries.

What would be your dream game to work on?

Hossein: I want to work on an open world AAA game with a storyline. Kind of like GTA, but with futuristic environments and multiplayer.

What’s your favorite video game of all time and why?

Sassan: I love Super Sonic. It is not only because of the game, but also because it reminds me of my childhood. The time that I used to play SEGA genesis with my brothers. I think the experience of playing a game is more important most of the time than what kind of game you are playing!

Hossein:GTA, it was the first open world game I played. One summer I spent hours daily exploring and doing different things. The game made me familiar with many concepts that were foreign to me at the time.

Back to my previous answers, the game was like an interactive movie for me. The memories from the game were so real to me that I had a “deja vu” feeling when I first visited Los Angeles.

What do you hope players take away from Pigeon POOlitics?

Funny Pigeon Video

We think Pigeon POOlitics can make people laugh, and at the same time educate them about the politics. We have news subtitles in the game which update daily.

We hope players learn that they should not treat any candidate as a holy person, that it is ok to joke about politics and criticize politicians, that you can and should express what you think freely and that both parties have good and bad features.

Funny Pigeon Names

What’s your five year plan?

Funny Pigeon Jokes

We are thinking of making our office bigger and focus more on funny casual games.

[suyogketkar]

Most of my office work requires writing and editing, and typing for long hours on a laptop is tiresome. Besides, having a wireless keyboard gives me the privilege to move away from the screen as I type my way to glory—well, kind of. This is why I decided to purchase an external keyboard for my laptop.

After researching, I decided on buying the Logitech K375s because of its dual connection feature. I can use either the Bluetooth connection on my laptop or insert the Unifying USB to connect it wirelessly. I liked having this option because even though my smart TV is Internet-enabled, using its tiny remote and the limiting rubber keys to type and search for a YouTube video is both painful and time-consuming.

I found that on either the USB or the Bluetooth, the connection between the keyboard and the laptop was stable. Even when I kept the keyboard on idle, the connection remained stable. After a while, when I began typing, the words flowed as freely as I had wished for—at least, in the context of the keyboard. The truth is that despite how good a keyboard one gets, writing continues to be a tough job.

The keyboard can be connected to three devices. I have connected it to my laptop and cellphone. So, I can type on either by switching between them with the click of a button. While there are a lot of them who’d prefer connecting it via Bluetooth, I have experienced that the connection via the wireless USB receiver is more stable. This, I have found to be valid for both the keyboard and the mouse. But, once I connect my keyboard to the laptop via the Unifying USB, I have to remove the keyboard from the Bluetooth pairing list and add it back before I connect it via Bluetooth. This is weird, unnecessary, and—I assume—faulty.

Logitech claims a battery life of about six months with heavy use. But I am yet to cross the six months timeline. So, I can’t really confirm if that is true.

The standard components of the packaging include the keyboard, the Unifying USB receiver, two AAA batteries, and a mobile (or tablet) stand. The stand is of good-quality plastic, but I would have liked to see some rubber padding on the bottom. This would have provided additional grip to the stand. The stand is sturdy and inclined at the correct angle to hold even my iPad Mini (with its cover) at a proper viewing angle.

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Shockingly, when I received the package, the USB receiver was not there in it. But, my supplier, Golchha IT, was kind enough to ship the missing USB receiver to me for free. In fact, they followed-up on the delivery for me. Such a showcase of professionalism and ethics is worth quoting.

The keyboard comes with decent construction quality. While the keys are easy to press and have a clicky feel, they are a bit on the noisy side, and the down arrow key didn’t always respond in the first attempt. I think this device I received was shelved for a long time.

As for the arrangement of the keys, I have a suggestion—in case Logitech is reading this. The Function (fn) key is placed on the bottom right-hand side of the alphabets.

But there is a context to the point I am making. Even though Logitech made K375s an OS-independent keyboard, there may be a lot of those—like me—who would use this keyboard while using a Microsoft Word application on a MacBook Pro.

The keyboard shortcut for changing the case in the Microsoft Word application is shift+F3. But the F1, F2, and F3 keys can also be used to switch between the Bluetooth-connected devices on the keyboard. This means I have to press the fn+shift+F3 button to change the casing.

If I do not press the fn key, I accidentally end up refreshing or resetting the connection between the keyboard and the connected device. The overall positioning of particularly that combination of keys makes it awfully awkward for me to use that shortcut. Had they placed the fn key on the left-hand side, they would have resolved this issue, especially for people with small hands.

As a workaround, I can use the mouse. But, it is an added task when I am writing. Because my mind is already occupied in doing mental edits before words come out. Thankfully, I don’t often use that shortcut, and I am yet to come across another equally awkward keyboard shortcut.

Pay attention to this space.

This is clearly the wastage of space, which I think should have been used for switching between devices, so that the function keys could have been left intact. Also, the arrangement of the Function key and the absence of a slot to carry the USB receiver mean that this wasn’t clearly one of the most thought out designs from Logitech. I think they should have looked at how Apple has made space for the key on their Magic/Butterfly keyboard.

In the time that I spent with this keyboard, I have noted some good and some not-so-good points about it:

I’d give full marks to its stable connectivity, and for having the connectivity options: so, a 5/5. (Five, being the highest)

This isn’t one of the most beautiful keyboards. It isn’t the latest one, either. So, a decent 3.5 on 5.

I expect all keys to work flawlessly. Besides, the USB receiver was missing when I purchased it. Even though the supplier shipped the Unifying USB receiver, the initial experience has had a lasting impression on me. I’d give it 2 on 5.

I’ve already shared my opinion on the design. So, an average 3 on 5.

This is my review of the Logitech K375s. I hope you like it.

Product Review: Logitech K375s Most of my office work requires writing and editing, and typing for long hours on a laptop is tiresome.

[punwolf]

I’ve got another huge, huge ass commission coming up once I get away from the flu. I’m hoping to start on Monday, but it will be good money. If I can just get over this stinking flu.

I’m seriously thinking of investing in a tablet (the kind you draw digitally with.) Wacom seems to be at the top of everyone’s list but only the really expensive ones are still getting the really positive reviews consistently. I see a whole lot of “I’ve loved my Wacom (or Bamboo) tablet and have had it for [at least several] years.” The brand new ones have more complaints about being flimsy (for around $100), no support, and other problems. I’m wondering if like traditional art supplies, some companies have gotten big or changed hands so that they’re not what they used to be, but that’s pure speculation. I’m sure there’s a hundred people who would instantly stand up for Wacom as being the best.

And maybe they are. I’m in no position to argue because I have no idea.

What I do know is I’m going to try a knock off to start with. It’s under $60 with a large drawing surface, buttons and the same amount of pressure sensitivity. I’m sure it’s NOT what a pro artist would ever dream of letting near their desk but my only tablet experience is a Wacom CTE-440. I plugged that into Google and a review popped up for it which dated back to 2006. This tablet literally has to be anywhere from 12 to 20 years old. No complaints because it was a gift. It’s really nice for what I’ve been using it for -- mouse replacement. My fingers were developing early arthritis from button mashing via PC games like Dragon Age and online games like Flight Rising. This relieved the pressure of day to day use so I could only use a mouse full time when playing stuff like Dragon Age. It saved my fingers and as battered, scratched and beat up as it is, I’ll probably still use it for that because it works so well.

For art? Ehhhhh ... I don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s me that’s the problem because I’m too used to traditional mediums or if it’s the ancient tablet. I want to find out, though, because I really do love the look of digital art. It’s got definite perks as well as drawbacks to traditional. Some things you can’t do, even with Photoshop although I’m sure you can get close. On the other hand, you can’t do a clean CTRL+Z and erase the last mistake like it never existed with traditional. You can erase, paint over, etc. but it’s not the same thing.

So I’m going to try a knock off brand which can be returned locally within 3 months if I don’t like it without a restocking fee or questions. If it turns out I like it, I’ll pick up an extended care plan to cover it for a couple of years in case it breaks. At least I’ll find out if it’s a short between the tablet and the chair or not.

If I really love it and enjoy digital then I’ll eventually look at getting a name brand, but I’ll be honest, it will have to pay for itself in some way. I’m not about to plop down $300-$500 for something that is basically a toy for the techie grown up. (In my case. I’m not a professional digital artist, obviously.)

[galuby]

Hey, Galuby! I've been meaning to ask these things for some time, but how long did it take for you to figure out how to draw via digital art? And what kind of drawing tablet do you use for it? I'd like to eventually take a step out of the world of traditional art and learn how to do it all digitally myself (though I may have to wait a while before I can afford it due to college), but I'd also like to hear your thoughts and advice on the matter if that's okay with you.

That`s completely ok with me ovob and i`m so flattered that you came to me for advice and kinda scare to screw up

Ok so

I`m still figuring out how to do digital drawing, and i learn something every day, it was, of course, a really intimidating step to give, out of the comfort zone of traditional art, but bro, that was the most exiting thing about it.

Another thing is, buddy chum fella, where there`s a will, there`s a way.

I don`t draw with a drawing tablet, I use a Samsung Galaxy 5 my aunt gave to me because she fucking rocks and didn`t wanted it anymore:

I cried that day, i`m not even from a country that sells these everywhere, they cost a kidney and a half. My granma brought it when she came to visit us from the USA, i have it since 4 years ago and is still kickin`.

The apps i use to draw are MedibangPaint and ibisPaintX (ibis was the first one i used then moved to medibang)

and bro, lemme get a side-to-side before and after:

http://galuby.tumblr.com/post/161371646319/galuby-2014-2017-who-are-you-im-you

And as you can see, i`m still figuring out hehe ^^;

as to what i use as a pen:

I use my fingers, mostly my index one but the others help sometimes.

Things is, it doesn`t matter which tool you use, what matter is the artist.

Trust me, getting a drawing tablet has always been my dream, i had to wait a looooooooooooooooooooooong time to get one, and worked my ass to get it too.

I went to my uncle`s house in Missouri a few weeks ago and stayed there for six months, taking care of my cousin, saving money to get one and now finally FINALLY GOT ONE! It`s an Intuos i haven`t used yet because now that i`m back home there`s not space for it here, but i will save some money and buy a desk ;). It wasn`t easy to get it to work tho, we had many MANY technical problems, i even had to wait more to buy a new laptop and get it to work, and yeah, is ready for use now.

Sorry for that ramble abt my life but I wanted to get a point. You will need patience, if you can`t afford it right now save and wait. If you have a way to learn the basic now THEN LEARN. And practice a lot. Pay attention in art streams, see what the artist does with the program, watch speed-paints that show the tools being used, watch tutorials but most important of all: MAKE MISTAKES! ALL THE MISTAKES YOU CAN POSSIBLE CAN, you will not learn from them right away (maybe) but know that if you were drawing a beautiful piece and suddenly lost it, you at least got a bit of experience! (this happened to me more than twice).

Another thing, apps and programs are different. The Medibang program is like hell for me, i will need to practice with it more.

Get a pen if you can and want If you`re willing to start with a phone bc i heard it can damage your fingers in the long run. No matter how you start, phone/mouse/tablet you WILL improve and get better tools and more skills everytime you practice.

Good luck! I BELIEVE IN YOU OVOb

[dropswisdom]

Minix Neo U22-XJ is Minix’s latest (and blazing fast!) Amlogic based Android TV Box! Based on Amlogic’s most powerful S922-XJ SoC, you can now expect great HDR support as well as Dolby Vision straight out of the box.

  What’s in the Box?



U22-XJ comes in the standard classy box embossed with the logos of supported standards such as 4k, HDR, Dolby and so on. Inside we find the TV Box itself encased in soft nylon and laid in a caveat inside a cardboard cover. After we lift that cover we find all the peripherals – HDMI 2.1 cable, USB-OTG cable and, of course, the DC power adapter (with multiple power plug adapters), removable antenna, IR remote control and the Setup guide. U22-XJ itself uses the standard black minix matte plastic box with its plethora of ports (see details bellow)

  U22-XJ Looks

Minix box design remains the same over the years. If I had to venture a guess, it is to reduce cost and use the same basic box design for all of Minix’s Android/Windows product lines. At most, extra ports need to be embedded into the box, but the classic black plastic shell is the same.

U22 Top

U22 Front

U22 Back

U22 Right

U22 Bottom

U22 Left

U22-XJ PCB Top without heatsink. Curtesy of Minix & Trebor from Freaktab Forum

U22-XJ PCB Bottom. Curtesy of Minix & Trebor from Freaktab Forum

U22-XJ Open Box showing PCB with heatsink. Curtesy of Minix & Trebor from Freaktab Forum

Here are the items that come in the box: WiFi antenna, HDMI 2.1 cable, User Guide, IR Remote, Power adapter, Power plug adapters, and a USB-OTG cable.

Minix Neo U22-XJ Items

Minix Neo U22-XJ Home Screen

  U22-XJ Specifications

Chipset Amlogic S922XJ Quad Core Cortex-A73 + Dual Core Cortex A53 Processor (64-bit) GPU Mali-G52 MP4 Memory / Storage 4 GB (LPDDR4 3200 MHz) / 32GB eMMC 5.1 flash, microSD card slot LAN Yes, RJ-45, 1Gbit / s Wireless 802.11ac 2.4GHz / 5GHz WiFi (2 × 2 MIMO) Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.1 + EDR OS Android 9.0 Pie Video Output HDMI 2.1 output up to 4Kp60 with HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision support Audio Output / Input HDMI 2.1, Optical S/PDIF, 3.5mm audio jack Power 5VDC/3A via power jack Peripheral Interface RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet Micro SD card reader, Kensington Lock ready USB 3.0 port x 3, USB-C port x 1 (data only) 3.5mm audio jack, IR receiver (remote included) Packing Included power adapter, OTG-USB Cable, HDMI Cable, MINIX IR remote control, and a user manual Dimensions 128mm x 128mm x 28 mm

  U22-XJ Benchmarks and Testing

All benchmarks have been repeated 3 times and results have been averaged to give a more accurate reading:

Antutu Benchmark

The Antutu benchmark tests single core performance over multi-core as it is a better indication of the performance of one device over others in most situations. Minix U22-XJ performs amazingly, and is placed number 1 in the list of TV boxes (and one tablet) reviewed. It is also worth noting that Minix U22-XJ is placed above any other Amlogic based box on the list.

Bellow is a screenshot of the latest Antutu benchmark (I have not tested other boxes with this new version, so there is no comparison graph as yet):

    GPU Mark Benchmark

[easy-image-collage id=28444]

GPU Mark tests 3d gaming performance and also provides a normalized score according to the used screen resolution (for a more accurate result). The test is quite short and should be taken as a supporting result to that of the more serious 3D Mark benchmark. Minix U22-XJ performs very well here, placing it second only to the top contender (a powerful tablet) – it’s S922-XJ chipset placing it higher than all TV Boxes reviewed so far.

    A1 SD Benchmark

[easy-image-collage id=28447]

A1 SD Benchmark tests RAM and flash memory speeds. As can be seen in the provided graphs, RAM is much faster (by a factor of about 40) than flash memory – that is why it’s in smaller amount and is also volatile (does not keep its contents after a reboot). Minix U22-XJ achieved 2th place in the RAM Copy Speed test, placing it only under the powerful tablet. In the storage Read/Write testing, Minix U22-XJ takes 2nd place again, this time only behind a Realtek based box.

    PC Mark Benchmark

The PC Mark benchmark tests run several productivity tests, but sadly, results page comes up empty, and freezes the application.

  3D Mark Benchmark

Slingshot

Slingshot Extreme

3D Mark benchmark is considered as one of the best ways to test 3d performance on Android (and other platforms). Minix U22-XJ is officially compatible with only these two tests: Slingshot, and Slingshot Extreme (which results are also showing above). But using an older APK of 3dmark, I was able to run the older “Ice Storm Unlimited” test and get quantifiable results (with the new version on the android play store, you can run the test, but the result comes out as “Max”). As can be seen, this new generation of Amlogic chipsets opens a wide gap ahead of everything I tested before it..

    U22-XJ Extra Benchmarks

For some more information, see the following screenshots from other benchmarks such as Basemark, Vellamo, Passmark, and GFXBench:

CPUMark

DiskMark

PassMark

    U22-XJ Bugs and Issues

Restarting the box causes loss of picture on screen. Must unplug and re-plug HDMI cable to restore.

PCMark Work 2.0 benchmark will not show results at end of testing

After shutting down box from remote, sometimes unable to turn it back on from remote, and must use the physical power button. Then must unplug and re-plug HDMI cable to restore picture as in issue above

Built-in Root function only works per session (while the device is running, and reverts to non-root after a restart). Also does not play well with SuperSU root permission management app, as when you try to update the SU binary, it will brick the U22-XJ box. Also, the root switch stay “ON” after a restart, even though root functionality is not active.

John from Minix assures me that at least some of these aforementioned issues (especially the loss of picture) will be corrected in upcoming firmware updates.

  U22-XJ Root function

Minix seems to have done away with the unofficial (which requires some know-how and may cause box bricking) methods for rooting their new boxes. Instead, you get a nice menu option for turning Root “ON” or “OFF”.

But.. it is far from perfect. Instead of turning it on and expecting it to stay on after reboot, this root is only per session. Meaning, after reboot the U22-XJ is no longer rooted. On top of that, the switch option itself still remains as “ON”, even though the root is not active. To allow root status again, you’ll need to turn it “OFF”, and then back “ON”. That’s tedious, and really unnecessary.

On top of that, this is a permission-less root. So there is no “SuperSU” or other permission management app which gets installed along with the root. It will automatically grant your application root rights as needed. Personally, I prefer to have better control of which applications gets root access and which do not. You can always install SuperSU yourself, but be warned: if you agree to update the SU binary – which the application will automatically offer you to do, the U22 will be soft bricked upon reboot, and will require a firmware flash using a cable and a PC. Learned that the hard way.

    U22-XJ Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

Resolution Video Format Local Playback Network (Wi-Fi) Playback 720p (1280*720) AVC (High@L4.1) Plays OK Plays OK 1080P (1920*1080) AVC (High@L4) Plays OK Plays OK  2160P (3840*2160) HEVC (H.265) Plays OK Plays OK 4K (4096*2304) AVC (High@L5.1) Plays OK Plays OK 4K HDR HEVC Main 10@L5@High HDR10 Plays OK Some buffering 4K TS HEVC HEVC (H.265) 10Bit Plays OK Plays OK

Kodi 18.6 arrives pre-installed on the U22-XJ. Video performance is very good, although local network streaming was less than perfect (especially with 4k HDR content) even though the WiFi performance measured very well outside of Kodi.

* 8k video is not really usable in kodi, but I have found that these samples DID play locally (with some stutter and a bit of buffering) on MX Player Pro

Kodi add-ons tested quite well. IPTV streamed without issues. Also, this box contains a SDR to HDR and HDR to SDR capabilities. It makes the picture pop. Some would like it and some would not, but you can always turn that feature off.

Antutu Video Testing got mixed results: U22-XJ played all the videos in the test, aside for FLV and RMVB formats which failed. Video playback was pretty flawless in general.

  U22-XJ Network performance

I tested the network performance using the popular Speedtest.net application from the play store. I tested both WiFi (the fastest WiFi supported – in this case 5GHz 802.11ac), and wired connection (in my case AV1200 Ethernet over power line). My home connection is a symmetric 500 Mb Fiber connection so it would not limit the testing (but the Ethernet over power line connection does) – Minix U22-XJ shows the strength of its MIMO antennas in the excellent WiFi performance, but less so with the LAN over Power-line connection:

WiFi 5Ghz

  Wired, over power lines

According to the Speed test, the network connection performed amazingly on WiFi 5 GHz (probably due to the MiMo and hardware), but not so great on the wired connection. Since the wired connection is over powerline adapters, inferior speeds are to be expected.

  U22-XJ Gaming performance

U22-XJ is definitely suited for smooth gaming – as long as you have a proper controller with which to play:

Asphalt 8 Airborne – a 3d graphic intensive racing game. Loads and runs smoothly, Using the included standard IR remote I could steer, but could not use Nitro..

Angry Birds 2 – a popular 2d action game. U22-XJ loaded the game fast and run smooth as butter – using an air mouse (not included). There is an issue where you cannot move from one stop to the next due to inability to click on an icon (clicking does nothing – also tried with a mouse), but that seems to be due to a game bug with this and some of the other TV boxes I tested.

Walking War Robots – an online robot warfare game that requires a game-pad (I don’t have a game-pad). U22-XJ loaded the game fast, and it run smoothly without issues. But full control was only possible via an air mouse with built in keyboard. otherwise, could only look around, but could not shoot or move with the standard IR remote.

    U22-XJ Conclusions

Did I like it? Yes, it is another quality power performer from Minix.

Would I recommend it? Yes, even though there area few issues, they do not affect the stability or the performance of the box in general. (8k is not currently common, a requirement or officially available on this chipset, so it cannot be counted)

You like it! Where can you buy it? It’s not a cheap box, but starting at about 170 USD for the basic package, you can find it here: AliExpress.com Product – MINIX NEO U22-XJ TV BOX S922X-J Android 9.0 4GB DDR4 32GB eMMC Smart TV BOX Dolby Video Audio 4K UHD Media Hub 2.4G/5.0G WiFi

or here: MINIX Android 9.0 Pie Media Hub 4K Ultra HD Dolby Vision Dolby Audio HDR10+4GB DDR4/32GB eMMC HDMI 4K @ 60Hz 3 x USB 3.0 USB-C [data only] GLAN AC Wi-Fi TF Card (NEO U22-XJ)

Amazon Minix Store

Aliexpress Minix Store

Review | Minix Neo U22-XJ AMLogic S922-XJ TV Box Minix Neo U22-XJ is Minix's latest (and blazing fast!) Amlogic based Android TV Box! Based on Amlogic's most powerful S922-XJ SoC, you can now expect great HDR support as well as Dolby Vision straight out of the box.

[fmservers]

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime on Wii U ‘stumbles’ and balancing nostalgia with reinvention

Nintendo is nearing its 130th birthday, and the company is once again in the midst of major changes as it embraces mobile platforms and online services. But Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime says that should come as no surprise: “We reinvent ourselves every 5 or 10 years. We have to. It’s in our DNA.”

In an interview at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Fils-Aime talked, in his immaculately Nintendo-promotional manner, about the company’s ups and downs over the last decade and what it took to get the Switch out the door.

“We focus on giving consumers experiences that they haven’t even thought of,” he explained. Anyone who has followed Nintendo for a few years certainly wouldn’t disagree — remember the vitality sensor? “By going down this path you create doubters. And we’ll be the first to admit that there will always be stumbles along the way.”

“The Wii had sold a hundred million units globally; the Wii U did not have that same level of success,” he admitted. That’s something of an understatement; the Wii U is widely considered something of a boondoggle, interesting but confusing and hugely outgunned by the competition when it came to what was valued by the rapidly growing mainstream gaming world.

“But in the words of one of our presidents — this is [Hiroshi] Yamauchi — when you’re doing well, don’t be excited by that high-flying performance, and when you’re doing poorly, don’t be said. Always have an even keel,” he said. Not exactly catchy, but it is good business advice. The focus should be on the horizon.

And that’s where it was, despite the painfully low sales numbers and lack of third party support. As he tells it, they just plowed ahead with new lessons under their belt.

“If we had not had the Wii U, we would not have the Switch,” he said seriously. “What we heard from customers was that the proposition of a tablet on which they could experience gameplay, coupled with the ability to play games on the TV, is really compelling. Users were telling us, I want to play with this tablet, but when I get 30 feet away from the TV, it disconnects. The one point gamers all hate is the point where they have to put the controller down. So it was an important step for us to be able to deliver on this proposition.”

“When I first saw the embodiment of that system,” he recalled, “the hairs on the back of my neck raised up.” It was the same feeling, he said, that he had with the Wii Remote and the DS — both featuring technologies that people were highly skeptical of at first but proved versatile and compelling.

Touchscreens weren’t common when the DS came out, and motion controls weren’t common when the Wii came out, he noted. Both have since become mainstream — not entirely due to Nintendo’s success with them, of course, but it would be disingenuous to say that had nothing to do with it.

But while the company can rightly be said to be taking risks in some ways, in other ways it is uniquely stuck in the past. Its most successful franchises are well past a quarter of a century old.

As Fils-Aime sees it, however, this is exactly how it should be. Mario and Link are characters the way Mickey Mouse or even someone like Robin Hood are characters. New franchises like Splatoon can be established and cared for, but the traditional ones (though no one mentioned Metroid, predictably and unfortunately) should be recycled and brought to new platforms and generations.

Nowadays that includes mobile games, where Nintendo has been taking tentative steps in recent years.

Nintendo’s latest has been criticized for its unvarnished quest for players’ money.

“We see our mobile initiatives as a way to bring our intellectual properties and our gameplay experiences to a larger population than the tens or hundred million consumers that own a dedicated gaming system,” he said. “With Super Mario Run, we literally have hundreds of millions of consumers experiencing Mario, consumers in places where we don’t even distribute our gaming systems. Then maybe they buy that Super Mario t-shirt, they may eat that Super Mario cereal, they may buy a Nintendo Switch.” (Presumably imported.)

Here Fils-Aime’s comments rang a bit hollow, however. Nintendo’s mobile strategy has leaned hard on the “gacha” style game that massively incentivizes in-app purchases of virtual currencies and grinding levels to unlock new characters randomly in loot box style. This seems so far from Nintendo’s core mission of entertainment and so close to the current industry method of cash extraction that it’s hard to believe it’s what the company really wanted to create.

It does, as Fils-Aime said was the goal, allow them to be “effective” on platforms and marketplaces they don’t themselves own, and it does drive their “overall business agenda.” But it seems as though the company is still trying to figure out how to truly bring its games to mobile. Perhaps the upcoming Mario Kart game will be a better option, but it could very easily go the other way as well.

Via Devin Coldewey https://techcrunch.com

[wordywarriorwrites]

Chapter 5: Game

Masterlist: The Boss of Brooklyn A03 Link Author: @wordywarriorwrites Summary: When it comes to being The Boss, James Buchanan “JB” Barnes rules with an iron fist. For him, there’s no room for sentiment, and certainly no time for distraction, even if it is in the form of an old flame. Steve Rogers had bowed out of the life a long time ago, but a twist of fate brings him right back into the fold, and face-to-face with a man he once loved. When a game of cat and mouse turns into a matter of life and death, both will be forced to decide whether they’ll be loyal to the business, or faithful to each other. A/N: Bucky Barnes Mob Boss AU. Stucky. For: Star’s Multi-Fandom Follower Celebration & Sherry’s Fall Into You Challenge. Warnings: Language, violence, drug use, alcohol, smoking, explicit sexual content, illegal activities.

“You look like shit.”

Bucky grunted, unbuttoned his suit jacket, and settled into the cushioned seat. The three-piece Tom Ford hid most of the injuries, but it definitely couldn’t distract from the half-healed bruises that still marred his face, and Thor’s blunt assessment, though wholly unnecessary, was rather apt.

“What can I get for you gentlemen?” their host asked politely.

While neither of them had time for dinner, the restaurant had closed temporarily for their meeting, and politeness dictated they at least have a drink. Within minutes, they were served, and the staff disappeared into the kitchen to give them privacy.

“Tell me what went down,” Thor prompted. “Then, tell me what you want me to do.”

Bucky did the same song and dance with him as he’d done with the others. He gave limited information; said not to make any moves without his permission; made it clear focus was to be on business and nothing else. Though the scotch he nursed during their conversation was undoubtedly top shelf, Bucky couldn’t really enjoy it. He’d been backed into a fucking corner, and though it had been two weeks since the confrontation, he still couldn’t shake the rage.

After Steve reintroduced himself with his fist, Bucky had been hauled to his feet, and dragged out of the penthouse. He was wrangled into the elevator and confronted by two masked men who thoroughly searched him from head to toe. Once Bucky had been relieved of both the knife strapped to his ankle and the gun at the small of his back, they’d bound his wrists in front of him, and put a black hood over his head. The only way he knew they’d taken him to the parking garage was because the elevator announced it, and as soon as they’d stepped out, he’d been forced into the back of a vehicle.

Bucky had heard the tires squeal as they went down and around and felt the slight bounce that indicated they’d hit the street. Then, there’d been a series of turns before a long stretch that suggested they’d gotten on the highway. He knew he should’ve kept his mouth shut, but he’d been too pissed off for rationality, and what had happened as a result still made him flinch…    

As soon as the vehicle was parked, he was taken out of the backseat, and the hood was removed. Military-grade body armor; Magpul FMG-9; grenade and rocket launchers; computers; blueprints; at least a dozen henchmen – it was an impressive display and he knew Steve wanted him to see it.

His two babysitters muscled him over to a wooden chair, forced him to sit, and held him in place with a hand on each of his shoulders. It was some time before Steve rejoined them and that’s when Bucky made the mistake of opening his mouth.

“Can I get a fuckin’ rag or something?” he asked tartly as he tried to stem the blood that continued to leak from his nose. “Or do you want to throw your dick around some more?”

The person to his right punched him. The individual to his left joined in not long after. From there, they took turns. They moved from his face to his ribs and kidneys, which he was able to take like a champ, but a closed fist to the solar plexus stole his breath, and made him fall sideways out of the chair.

He was kicked and stomped repeatedly while he was down, and when Steve told them to stop, they didn’t obey. Seconds later, two shots fired in rapid succession, and instinct made Bucky cover his head and stomach to protect himself. When he finally peeked out from between his arms, he saw the bodies of his tormentors slumped in awkward, macabre positions.

Blood and bits of brain matter were splattered across the concrete, but nobody said anything; the corpses were simply taken away and he was put back in the chair. Moments later, another chair was brought over, and Steve sat down across from him.

“I have a job to do,” he stated. “And you keep getting in my way.”

There wasn’t a single hint of malice in Steve’s voice, but there was an uncompromising finality to it, and the point was driven home via a gun’s safety being released. A muzzle was then promptly nestled at the base of his skull, and that’s when Bucky knew the time for posturing was over.

The man he once called his best friend had always been calculating, but never quite so viciously brutal, and there was an unyielding, steely resolve about him that hadn’t been there before. Black clothing from head-to-toe; protective vest; knives strapped to each thigh; guns on either side of his waist. Broader through the chest; longer hair; a full beard. The combination of his physicality and his dress made him appear menacing, and his sheer ruthlessness meant Natasha had been right in her assessment.

Steve Rogers had changed and he was dangerous.

Bucky carefully lifted his head and met his eyes, “Why am I here?”

“Because you’re the boss, JB, and it’s your job to keep the rest of the Families in line,” Steve stated in a matter-of-fact tone. “Or can you no longer manage that?”

The insinuation made Bucky sit up a little straighter, but he didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he asked what precisely Steve wanted from him. When he remarked he didn’t want anything, and that Bucky had already done enough damage, his curiosity was piqued. Bucky didn’t have to ask if the senator’s death had put a dent in whatever plans he had, because Steve was quick to clarify on his own.

“We’re keeping the wife for insurance and will take care of her with the job is done. In the meantime, tell Bruce to stop meddling, and keep everyone else at bay. Understood?”

The gun was pressed harder into his flesh, which made him agree to the terms, but Steve had long ago stopped taking him at his word. It wasn’t until someone brought over a tablet and Bucky was shown live footage of Natasha in her hospital bed and Bruce giving a lecture that he submitted.  

Steve nodded curtly and got to his feet, “We’re done. Now, get him the fuck out of my face.”

“Can I bring you anything else?”

Pulled out of his musings, Bucky cleared his throat, and politely declined. Thor shook his head and the server took their empty glasses.

“Remind me what we’re to donate for the fund raiser next week?” he asked as he retrieved his wallet and laid cash out on the table. “I need to write the check beforehand so Wanda doesn’t slit my throat.”

“It’s a silent auction this year.”

Thor cursed lowly, “Means I have to be there for the whole damn thing…”

Bucky stood, buttoned his jacket, and clapped him on the shoulder, “Yes, you do. So, show up on time, bid on something decent, and write a check before you get wasted, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered with a wry grin. “I hear ya’.”

After they both extended their gratitude to the restaurant’s owner, they shook hands, and went their separate ways. Bucky ran a few more errands downtown before he headed home. One glance at his inbox showed there were a million different things that required his attention, but for the moment, anything that didn’t pertain directly to business was put on the back burner.  

They hadn’t been able to keep a lid on it, and now, everyone knew Steve was back in town. They were aware of the botched take down, of what he’d done to Natasha, and how he’d ambushed The Boss. The whispers and rumors had already started and Bucky was fed up with being the punching bag.

He’d done as Steve dictated – he told the Families to mind their own and instructed Natasha and Bruce to stand down. With everyone else out of the line of fire, Bucky was finally able to focus, and the clarity brought forth all sorts of realizations.

He’d been distracted, lenient, far too indulgent, and those who worked for him and the Families had been allowed to run amuck for quite long enough. Mouths needed to be shut. Examples needed to be made. Dissention needed to be culled and it was easier to ensure cooperation when the consequences were dire. Deference was all well and good, but as Steve had demonstrated, fear was also a very powerful motivator, and could work just as well.  

In fact, sometimes, it worked even better.

Everyone could make an honest, unintentional mistake now and then – they were human, after all, and nobody was perfect. Such minor offenses would be met with an increase in dues and a hefty fine. Serious infractions would result in an immediate loss of territory, authority, and rank. The offender would be required to give restitution in whatever form Bucky saw fit, but they would never earn their way back into his or the Family’s good graces.  

Outright disrespect and disobedience – there were no second chances for that -- and anyone who wished to test him or provoke his wrath?

They’d be given a bullet and a shallow fucking grave.

Bucky had just finished putting together the missive when his cellphone rang. He recognized the number and when he answered, all he heard was a clipped, “let me in,” and then, the line went dead. This time, he didn’t allow himself to be taken by surprise, and once he confirmed it was Natasha, he disengaged the alarm, and opened the door.

“We have work to do.”

She smirked and stepped over the threshold, “Ready whenever you are, Boss.” 

Chapter 6: Set

Everything: @jennmurawski13​​ @nerdy-bookworm-1998​​ 

Steve Rogers: @patzammit @hearttoearth​​ The Boss of Brooklyn: @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan​​ @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety​ @captain-rogers-beard​​ @lilliannaansalla

[craigedwardgiven]

Write Myself Empty

Writing Gnats

As I struggled to regain traction on my novel, my head was abuzz with distracting gnat clouds of ideas and issues. Prewriting seemed the accepted and logical solution, so I broke my manuscript into individual scenes in Scrivener as a precursor to outlining the entire plot. This, unfortunately, served only to stir up additional clouds of writing gnats. So my next attempt to silence them was a technique I use at my day job: write myself empty. It is as if I literally pluck the distractions from my mind and stick them to the paper. The effort of articulating an item is an acknowledgment and respect of its importance. Then that gnat is content to remain in storage, quietly awaiting its turn to be at center stage and to find resolution. Let’s seek inspiration from the work tool (which I’ll call the “fly paper”) that I use to snare and subdue distractions.

Fly Paper for Day-Job Gnats

Project Name

About

The “About” section rarely appears for most projects

It can be used to keep milestone or milestone dates top-of-mind

It can be used to capture names, addresses, or numbers of particular consequence

In Progress

A concise statement of one task to be accomplished

All items are dated since a superior may ask when an issue was reported, resolved, delegated, due, etc.

ISSUE: Issues are prefixed with an uppercase label to make them easy to identify because they also tend to be urgent

Items that are awaiting a response or action from another party can be prefixed with “AWAITING:” or colored (I use fuchsia)

Bold text, red lettering, and/or yellow highlighting identify important or urgent items

Next Steps

Like the “In Progress” section, except for items yet to be undertaken

On the Horizon

Like “Next Steps,” but for items much farther into the future

This section won’t exist for most projects

Completed

The reason for keeping a completed section is not so much for a sense of accomplishment, but a quick reference when a superior wants a status update 

All items in the completed section use a gray font to deemphasize them

Issues that have been dealt with receive a prefix of “Resolved,” “Work-Around,” “NAPWAD” (not a problem, working as designed), etc.

This section is also a place to document major decisions made, who made them, and when they were made

Although, the title on this document is “Status Report,” it’s not actually something seen by my superiors. I’m the primary beneficiary and I use this document to juggle multiple projects—some of which can be complex, lengthy, and large in scope. Every workday morning I open this document to set my course, and it stays open to capture the inevitable additions that pop up throughout the day. It helps me silence distractions, focus on the top-tier tasks, and ensure next-tier items don’t fall through the cracks.

Oh, wait! That sounds a lot like writing a novel! The structure of the fly-paper for writing gnats will be different than day-job gnats. But it shares the same act of capturing and the same benefit of silencing. If you’d like to apply my “Status Report” template to a project at home or work, I’ve shared the file below, in Microsoft Word format, for download. For those without MS Word access, I’ve also uploaded and converted it to Google Docs and hopefully that will provide beneficial.

Which Fly Paper for Writing Gnats?

Mind Maps versus Flow Direction

Finding the right technique is not the same as finding the right tool to perform that technique. Instead of assuming the same tool can be applied to the technique, I wanted to carefully consider which “fly paper” would be best at capturing my writing gnats. The first idea that came to mind was the popular and obvious solution of mind mapping. There are plenty of mind mapping tools available, including Scrivener’s sibling Scapple. However, despite its integration advantage, Scapple is only available on Mac and Windows, so it doesn’t work on mobile devices nor is it cloud based. And even though I’ve tried some mind mapping solutions that are cloud based and available as mobile apps, I haven’t been satisfied with the results. Mind mapping is great on a giant whiteboard or even on a big sheet of paper. But most screens can only show a portion of a map legibly. And no matter the device, onscreen mapping doesn’t flow like handwritten mind maps. Instead it stutters and drags since I cannot dedicate my focus to mapping—some attention must be diverted to operating the technology. I’ve persevered when such mind maps were part of a group event, or a presentation, or when I needed to capture or publish the results. So I know that, with enough dedication and practice, mind mapping software could fit your need. If you’re already at that point, be sure to share your software recommendations (in the comments below) for your fellow readers.

For me, however, when it comes to writing gnats, the goal is to eliminate distractions, not accommodate or outperform them. My energy and focus needs to go to actual writing, and that as quickly and easily as possible. But more importantly, mind mapping flows in a direction very different from writing. Writing in English flows from left to right and down the page. In contrast, mind-mapping expands from the center of the page in all kinds of directions. So I need a tool that works with the natural flow of writing. The relationships that were previously captured in the bubbles and lines of a mind map can be transformed into headings, indents, and other rubrics that are compatible with the directional flow of writing. Those methods have already proven both their ability to capture and organize thoughts in my day-job tool and will work equally well on writing gnats. And since my mind is already practiced in those features, I want a tool that not only offers them, but also allows me to invoke them without interrupting my flow (i.e., intuitive and easy controls).

Before listing my test bed, I feel the need to address the tangent of “distraction-free” writing apps. Unfortunately, that term is often code for “dumb” and the creators are trying to sell a lack of features as if it were a benefit. I’ve tried a few of these apps and haven’t found any benefit to them. Perhaps you are the type who is truly distracted by menus and toolbars, but I have found these “distraction-free” apps a waste of money and time. I do, however, have to give Scrivener credit for its offering, because it hides rather than eliminates features. Also, Scrivener gives you control over that “distraction free” experience such as selecting a pleasing backdrop, scaling the font, setting the editor width, etc. But for me “distraction-free” is not about what is on the screen, but rather what is buzzing in my head, and the features that will quell those distractions are:

Rubrics

Size, color, highlighting, bold, italic, underline: to draw the eye and triage importance

Strikethrough: to indicate a consideration was made but rejected

Headings: to organize and navigate the document

Layout

Indents: to show dependencies and relationships

Bulleted lists: the core element of the tool, and when sequence is not relevant

Numbered lists: when sequence and hierarchy are both important

Platform

Desktop: To leverage a full sized keyboard, mouse, and dual monitor setup (Microsoft Windows in my scenario)

Mobile: The ability to work on a project while away from a desk by using a phone or tablet (iPhone and iPad for my scenario)

Cloud: Allows work in a browser and ease of switching platforms because the files are stored in or synchronized through the internet.

Copy & Paste: I should be able to transfer what I’ve captured to a finished document. That's typically via Copy & Paste, and the platform should not mangle the style or destroy proper typographical elements such as:

urved double quotes, single quotes, and apostrophes: “, ”, ‘, ’ versus " and ' 

Hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes: -, –, and —

Ellipsis: … versus . . .

The Contenders

Scrivener

How is Scrivener a contender when it’s not even a cloud product? First, it is vigorously targeted at writers, so I want to know if it can stand up to the rigors of my demands. Second, its Dropbox support makes it somewhat cloud friendly. Dropbox sync is nearly automatic on desktops and on mobile the manual sync is so simple it’s hard to consider obtrusive. And, lastly, the iOS Scrivener app qualifies it for the mobile requirement.

Although it delivered on nearly every requirement, I found the interface quirky. Adjusting to its nuances had a slightly steeper learning curve than other products with which I’ve experimented. I also found its support for headings and numbered lists weak and indents can only be used with lists unless you elect to manually wrestle them into place. The most glaring issue was Copy & Paste, and a search of their forums found other Scrivener customers of the same mind. In the screenshots below you can see where I’ve pasted text into Scrivener. In the first example, the lines overlap each other and in the second they pasted as hyperlinks (although without any actual destination).

Google Docs

Google Docs passed with flying colors and offered all the features needed. It even made the sweet spot in the headings department, offering four pre-built levels (the need for levels deeper than four quickly diminishes as the hierarchy grows). The editor is responsive and fairly intuitive, and being browser-based not only qualifies it as cloud-based but multi-platform as well. But its crowning achievement is the price of “free.”

iOS Notes

I didn’t expect the Notes app to be a serious contender. But recent improvements under iOS 11 and iCloud support made it worthy of at least a passing mention and experimentation. Unsurprisingly I found font manipulation and list features minimal, so it’d only serve those with equally undemanding requirements. But, for those with an iPhone always within reach the convenience is hard to deny for short and simple captures.

Office365

Microsoft Word is the dominant platform when it comes to word processors. And this admission comes from a WordPerfect expert who remained loyal to the very end. But the end did come, and in the long years following, Word retained its throne legitimately with a powerful feature set. Its iOS versions are incredibly close to their desktop counterparts, but the browser version had two issues.  The most significant issue is the lack of smart quote support.  Instead of getting curly quotes and apostrophes (like “this” and ‘this’ it gives you "this" and 'this'), which is important if you’re writing dialog or using contractions. Of lesser impact is that Word Online lacks decent tab key support, which customers have decried since 2012. Tables can be used as a work-around for the lack of tab key support. But I thought I’d mention these two shortcoming and Microsoft’s extended attitude towards these issues. And it’s worth noting that Google Docs handles both these features without issue.

Then there is the price. And that’s exacerbated by being bundled in a hard-to-resist office suite. For less than a hundred dollars a household of five not only gets Word, but Excel (spreadsheet), PowerPoint (presentations), Access (database), OneNote (like Evernote on steroids), Publisher (desktop publishing), Outlook (email), and a terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage and synchronization. While you’re certainly getting value for your money, it also cannot be called cheap, especially when it must be paid annually. 

As a power user familiar with all the products in the bundle, with nearly 20 years of experience, and having multiple computers that can leverage the device licenses, it was easy to justify the subscription. But even into my second year of a subscription, I didn’t find myself using it fully due to a mental block. Despite my investment in Office365, I would catch myself in Google Docs to creating articles, idea lists, or project notes.

I couldn’t blame habit and familiarity because it only happened for personal documents—I dive into Word and Excel without hesitation every day at work. I can’t blame accessibility because even multi-factor access is both quick and flows smoothly. Nor can I blame capability because I hadn’t spent enough time using it to know if the features fell short or not. I was puzzled by my irrational reluctance until I realized that the annual subscription was haunting me, and that I was subconsciously treating its cost as a risk. Perhaps that was due to Microsoft’s troubled OneDrive history (I was an early adopter of the now defunct SkyDrive and Window Live Folders). But Google isn’t blameless either when it comes to abandoned customers (e.g., Reader, Picasa, Wave, etc.). So, I’ve begun to be intentional in my usage of Office365 to stamp out my irrational reticence and to surface and solidify any real concerns should they exist. 

Conclusion

Productivity is the goal, so if you’re already proficient and content with a tool then stick with it. However, if you’re without a tool then pick one compatible with your financial assets, your mindset, and your skill set. Google is free, quite powerful, and a great place to start your journey. Scrivener is an affordable solution targeted at authors who want an integrated writing environment and only need a basic text editor. And finally, Office365 is for users who relish a rich feature set instead of being daunted by its power or its price. 

[ruubzway-blog]

Teenage prostitutes in Bangladesh | The Wider Image

Being a new "Chukri' or even bonded girl, they're bound to comply with together with the particular orders involving their own Sardarni (house owners, who were prostitutes by themselves just before as well as buy girls to perform their businesses). "When I very first took the customer; I didn't realise the thing that was going to happen. Nevertheless essentially it is a prison with regard to around 900 sex workers. I require consumers in order to pay my bills along with repay my loans. between these stalls, the actual alleyways in another aspect involving wide drains were dark. I use a four-year-old son. I weep for my son, as I rarely meet him," stated sixteen-year-old Maya. As I roamed around the brothel seeking an chance to portray his or her scenario via my camera, Maya, a new sixteen-year-old sex worker welcomed me in her own tiny room. The Particular gentle breeze regarding spring surrounded the cold atmosphere associated with the little town regarding Tangail, in the northeast of Bangladesh. A New brief walk through any relaxed neighbourhood involved in order to a place which looked just like some of the actual country's slums. Hashi cleaned a number of small fish as the lady prepared dinner. He raped me again and also again. The Particular drug can become found in any tea as well as cigarette stall around the brothel. Next my fixer I suddenly found myself inside among these narrow lanes, exactly where youthful girls along with hefty makeup and also colourful clothes had been lined up. The Actual drug's side effects contain headaches, chest http://milf-is-busty.easyxblogs.com/article/9/milf-is-busty-best-porno/ pains, skin rashes, gastric, swelling in the body, stomach aches, high blood sugar levels and pressure. The neighbourhood, that consists of around 100 buildings using more than 800 small rooms, can be certainly one of the 14 official brothels of Bangladesh. I really feel more proud inside myself." Sitting within Maya's room, I located several mouse holes in the floor. It is normal practice among prostitutes associated with Kandapara brothel to adopt steroids similar to Oradexon -- employed by farmers to fatten their particular cattle -- so as for you to gain weight and seem "healthier" and more appealing to clients. I hope to stretch your budget for my son. I can't even go to determine him pertaining to last handful of years." "The small sex workers regarding this brothel must serve a minimum of 10-15 clients each day" Andrew Biraj, Reuters Photographer For the past eight years, Maya may be working as becoming a prostitute from Kandapara brothel. The Girl didn't acquire just about any clients that will whole day. Yet I have no choice to go back to be able to typical existence anymore. I weep silently every night. I began to consider back again the particular medicine simply to survive." "After taking the drug Oradexon, I discovered myself really fresh. Within this atmosphere involving my shattered room, simply no customers need to visit. Your Woman said, I have got to look more wholesome along with beautiful. I very first rejected your ex offer. I found at least 4 to always be able to 5 customers waiting before my room right after waking up within the morning," mentioned Hashi inside the particular brothel. "In this brothel clients usually try in order to find healthy girls. I require more customers to end up being able to raise my son. I noticed that will despite the woman's age, actually she looks mature. "I accustomed to serve consumers 1 after an additional in your program of the whole day. Your bright tungsten lights regarding grocery shops and the high volume regarding Bangladeshi pop audio in the tea stalls mesmerised the whole area. the girls of numerous ages, though mostly teenagers, attempted to draw the interest associated with men through laughing, chuckling along with pulling his or her hands. https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/teenage-prostitutes-in-bangladesh According to research simply by ActionAid, sex workers in between 18 and also 25 years of age group are generally many susceptible in order to getting your drug Oradexon as they have to attract clients along with entertain all of them within the method his or her competition does. Maya can't conserve adequate cash for her youngster as she has to spend a new lot of bills and it is inside debt. "I couldn't conserve even a new single paisa for myself or even regarding my son. I had been drying up, there was simply no glow within my face. Your Woman earns with regards to 300-500 Taka per day ($0.85 - $1.22) serving around 15-20 clients each day. if I don't get customer, how can I survive? I need to spend 6,600 taka ($8-.48) rent pertaining to this little room. Regarding me, which was enough. I weep with regard to myself, as I don't go in order to whichever future. That has been bleeding severely as well as I was crying. I just take Oradexon. lack associated with awareness, simple availability and malpractice regarding quacks are the prime causes." "When I ended up being under my Sardarni, I couldn't know how much I accustomed to earn, since my Sardarni took away all associated with my income. if I don't get just about any consumer in the day, I cannot eat in the next day." The younger prostitutes on this brothel must serve no much less than 10-15 consumers each day. I was lacking just about any concept what sex is," mentioned Hashi, whom has been working like a prostitute since she had been 10.. "Six in order to seven many years back again my Sardarni forced me to consider any tablet; I couldn't know which was a new drug. I noticed my number of clients has been decreasing. The Lady offered me food, and also became surprised when I accepted the girl offer. Each As Well As Every evening debtor knocks in the door with regard to money. I couldn't tolerate the anguish associated with hunger," Maya said. "But when my Sardarni left me, I had been most alone along with couldn't even consume appropriately throughout the day. I gave him in order to one of my relatives. The Girl beat me up as well as stopped providing food. in exchange the girl served me meals 3 times a day. Absolutely No 1 wants any prescription to purchase it. "Four years back my Sarderni left me as your woman wants small girls to perform the girl business. I do certainly not know how many, yet I guess I had to serve around 20-25 customers in the day. That increased my appetite and I began feeling a lot more hungry. Maya's four-year-old son Halim lives along with your ex mothers along with fathers throughout yet another town, Barisal. Sex workers are handled as untouchables inside the conservative Muslim society regarding Bangladesh. The evening had been quieter as compared to within hectic Dhaka. she threatened me as well as reminded me concerning my loans." Hashi told me inside her small, packed room. Shipra Gowshami, a lawyer along with human rights activist, which has been working with most the sex workers associated with Faridpur for a long occasion said, "Steroids certainly are generally a life-saving also like a life-destroying drug, which could be employed by sex workers inside poor countries very desperately