#it also feeds into the thing i hate where alternative fashion is only acceptable if it's perfectly coordinated and aesthetically pleasing

[lazylittledragon]

if one more alt character gets saddled with the "smells bad/doesn't shower" headcanon i'm going to start swinging

[partygaming924]

Why is my gaming pc running games so badly

Gaming Blogs UK Best 10

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Less developed countries like Indonesia and Philippines have drawn much less attention from app publishers. Fashion and trends in mobile gaming in these countries have been heavily influenced by Western markets, with inroads from China, Japan and South Korea. In Indonesia, globally common games like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga took 5 of the prime ten spots by revenue and 7 spots by downloads in December 2014. In Philippines, international leaders took an even higher share: six of the leading 10 spots by income and the complete major 7 by downloads. Having said that, unlike in Japan or South Korea, Supercell and King did not rely on huge Tv and outside marketing campaigns to acquire users and climb up ranks. It appears that the development in these 5 emerging Southeast Asian markets was much more organic. In Indonesia and Philippines users had been acquired additional through marketing automation channels such as Facebook.

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If you don't have a massive gaming group, you have probably noticed that two-player games are really hard to come across, and seriously wonderful ones that are just as fantastic for two players are even a lot more rare. I've wracked my memory (and pestered my buddies) to come up with a bunch of tabletop games that are a blast for two— not just technically playable with no additional.

Exactly how To help Win Supporters With Control People with GAMING

The future of India's game development neighborhood appears bright and there is no purpose why it can't become the selected location for international gaming business. The customer base for games is increasingly growing, specially on mobile, and the proper e-commerce options are already in spot to facilitate micro-transactions and ad revenue. The Indian game app developers will thus have ample opportunity to innovate, style, and create compelling game content for both the Indian and global audience.

If you are reading this from a mobile device, chances are you have a laptop or computer chip complete of games that have intrigued your require for gaming, but not very satisfied it. With the invention of the clever phone, mobile gaming device, and transportable computer system straight out of Star Trek, gaming has a lot more platforms than ever, along with as numerous blogs as ever.

Bit things continue to develop up and platform was changed differently. Google and Apple changed their algorithms couple of time and this shake whole App search results. Platforms fixes their early troubles and if you don't forget Balmer's joke "Who's gonna get $500 telephone? folks start to purchased $500 phones. Also steady platform bring "BigGuys" there like EA, GameLoft in gaming marketplace or Adobe, Autocad in graphic apps. This happens around 2011-2012.

EDIT:I utilized to watch the Feedback video more than at G4 each week, but it is gone down hill the final couple of instances I watched it and now that Adam Sessler is not on it and they have that girl from IGN that everybody hates in each and every episode I just cannot be bothered to watch it any much more. Nonetheless worth going back and watching some of the older ones although. Klepic utilized to be on that show and back then in the early days was when it was the most effective. Back when they in fact talked about gaming news with some semblance of intellect as an alternative of just gushing about what ever game they are told is cool this week.

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This (Blog) is where you can read almost everything I know. Find out about the best board games for game nights in original critiques, get guidelines on almost everything from organizing to snack and drinks, and read up on inclusivity and diversity in gaming communities. There is stuff here for person players trying to chip in on game night, to hosts who want to (ahem) up their game, to enterprises interested in hosting common board game nights.

The journey to becoming a Guru is an thrilling roller coaster of social feelings. Individuals get pretty attached to their board games, and getting to the final stage of getting rid of games is not a step that everybody requires. What everyone can agree on, on the other hand, is that modern board gaming is fun, and a great excuse to get some buddies with each other.

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[aeondeug]

That I think is a big part of why it’s so important to me that like the Knorth twins’ lives were awful right from the get go. I remember being kind of angry when I heard in the podcast that Jame didn’t act like a kid. And then I just kind of calmed myself down and didn’t really do anything about that and just had to think it out. Since that wasn’t the kind of mood where I could act appropriately and reasonably so it was better to sit on it and think. And I’ve had time to think it out and calm down more and express it more coherently and less in a panicked fit. And the reason I was so angry is that Jame does act like a kid when she’s a kid.

And that’s horrifying.

A kid shouldn’t have to have that sort of life and go through those sorts of things and be thinking of that sort of stuff so early but that’s just kind of the reality for a lot of kids. Like, no, I guess potatoes can’t really grow creepy eyeballs that pop into poisonous toxic goop but there are lots of kids who don’t grow up with safe food. And, no, I guess there’s no such thing as your dad actually having like spooky mind control blood but like your parents might as well have spooky mind control blood when you’re that young and weak and they’re that big and cruel.

The cartoon robot dad dying in a movie was never the worst thing in my life. The worst thing in my life was pets dying, my parents screaming at each other, my father trying to break down the door and yelling about how he’d kill my mother’s then boyfriend, my brother trying to stab me because I’d spent years as the favorite and lying to get him in trouble instead of me, it was having to leverage my status as the favorite in that fashion at all because the alternative was worse. I had an emotional breakdown about it sometime last year and I had to write these broken choppy poems about it because I had to come to accept the fact that this happened.

And it’s not like there’s been nothing happy in my childhood. There’s lots of happy things in my childhood. I remember how much it meant to me to save up enough allowance to get Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete because I loved the original on the Sega CD when I was like 4. I remember long beach trips where I just got to wander around and do whatever I pleased for hours on end. I remember the first time I caught a wave and the first time I ever popped up on a board. I remember lots and lots and lots of trips to Disneyland and how even if my mother hated the fucking ride she’d always go on It’s A Small World with me because it was my favorite ride and she’d never make me go on Splash Mountain like how my father would.

But I also have to balance the mother that did that with the mother that had a child taken away because she was deemed abusive and unfit as a mother. And that’s why I had to write those poems and that’s why I so distressed because for years I tried to pretend that the worst thing that happened to me as a kid was the cartoon robot dad dying and that’s just not the case. It’s really not. I think my brother was well within his right to have stabbed me. Because that’s how bad the levels of abuse physical and mental we suffered were. It would have only been just.

There’s some fucking post that goes around here on tumblr about how anxiety for people with C-PTSD is different from that of people with like irrational phobias and GAD and there’s a bit from it I remember super well. In how living with this kind of trauma is like living with a fire alarm that constantly goes off at random times every day. It’s living with the fear of things getting horribly bad not because they theoretically could but because they’ve been that bad before and your brain knows that and is trying everything it can to prevent that from happening again. Because it’s been that bad. This isn’t a cutesy what if scenario. It’s something that happened.

And how in the fuck do you deal with a world in which someone can say something like how being a kid the worst that could have happened was the cartoon robot dad died and you can’t fucking relate because that’s never been true. My earliest memories are of people yelling and screaming and slamming things and having to move and leave my school because my father hit my mother in front of my baby brother. I was the kid that liked Digimon and Monster Rancher more than Pokemon because my pets could die in the game and that felt more real than some world where no matter how bad my pet got beat up it never, ever died and I never had to spend time with it and feed it and make sure it didn’t get sick and never had to deal with the fear that one day you’ll wake up and find out that the cat has a sickness and can’t get better and it’s going to fucking die.

My therapist asked me once to remember a time when things were fine and I felt safe and I got very angry at her and I cried and yelled at her because I can’t remember a time when I was safe. There was never a time when I was safe.

Jame acts like a kid. I know she does because I’ve been that kid. Or rather I’ve been the other kid in the equation who hated her and loved her all at once. But the point is they act like kids. I know they do. I’ve been one of those kids.

I’m happy that there are people who haven’t been. But I’ve never felt more alone knowing that there are. One of the happiest days in my life was showing someone I trusted the poems I wrote during that mental breakdown and knowing that they understood them on a deep, personal level due to going through similar things. But people like us shouldn’t exist. There shouldn’t be a world where anyone should have to know what it’s like. We should get to live in a world where people can see Fate in Nanoha getting beat by her mom and go ‘Oh that’s not believable! This is just so cartoony.’

That’d be such a lonely world for me but it’d be a better world I think.

[transienturl]

Multiples of 8. Actually... to hell with it. Nonmultiples of 8.

Wow. You sure ask a lot of questions considering that you don’t even know who I am, person I don’t know and have never met before. Surely you don’t want a 3000 word post, right?

Oh, whoops. 

21. What are your bad habits?I’m going to edit this in later.

22. Where would you like to travel?I wish I was a polyglot so I could travel to more than ~15% of the world and meaningfully interact with it.

23. Do you have trust issues?Maybe? That sounds like the kind of question I’d like to ask a mental health professional. I feel, though, like the idea of having trust issues would have to be a common thread through how one interacts with a lot of people. Since I don’t interact with a lot of people, I think trying to make a general statement about how I would if I did is mostly guesswork.

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?The area that hurts when I have a cluster headache :| Besides things that fall into the medical issue category… meh, all of it is fine. If I could have a few transformations, which I would very much like, then I’d probably keep all of the bits I currently have for at least one form each. It’d be very mix-and-match. Except facial hair maybe; I think I could probably do without that.

26. What do you do when you wake up?Lately? Complain abut my headache.

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?No.

28. Who are you most comfortable around?

I just wanted an excuse to use this picture.

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?No.

30. Do you ever want to get married?Sure? I guess so? On the one hand, it sounds nice, but on the other, it sounds like a lot of work if you do the whole party thing.

31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail?Very much so.

33. Spell your name with your chin.

 m aqrecus

34. Do you play sports? What sports?No. The closest I’ve come to playing sports is… probably going to a math competition.

35. Would you rather live without TV or music?For the most part, I would rather live without TV than live with TV.

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?How is this even a question? Is there anyone who has not done this? I call shenanigans.

37. What do you say during awkward silences?Hm. That depends a lot on the situation, but for the most part, I don’t find silences awkward.

38. Describe your dream girl/guy?Almost every dream I can find that I’ve written down is populated by (inaccurate) real people expys. One of them had the protagonists of Spy Kids. In one, I invented a family friend named Celeste (she was Chinese). Another only contains the notes “black female tech enthusiast” but I couldn’t remember what events were occurring with that characer when I woke up. If I had to guess, I’d say the generic female protagonists in my dreams tend to have shoulder-length brown hair, but that’s probably me projecting a mental picture onto a complete lack of remembered details or the details not existing in the dream.

Oh: one girl in my dream was at an alt-right rally with a gun, and she shot me by accident. She was super shaken up and afraid, and I forgave her. That sure would make an interesting… something.

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?Ones that sell computer bits, with employees who don’t try to sell you them incompetently. Oh, wait, I’ve never experienced that.

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?Everyone? No. I don’t know what they’d be, but considering the vast range of possible scenarios, I’m positive there are a bunch where someone absolutely would not.

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?Nothing. How quiet or talkative I am changes completely based on my best guess at what’s appropriate.

43. Do you smile at strangers?If they’re smiling. Or if they’re kids.

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?Hm… that’s a tough one. I feel like the bottom of the ocean would be ultimately more interesting, but I like vast views and I’m a sucker for spacecraft.

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?If I don’t, I’ll get a headache.

46. What are you paranoid about?

Fire/explosions

Sharp items

Alcohol/drugs

Data loss

People getting upset with me

Data loss again

Embarrassment

Running out of battery

Failure

Complacency

People thinking I’m a fake-intellectual snob who does stuff like answer simple questions with “complacency”

No, seriously, data loss; don’t write anything in a form in a web browser, guys

Republicans

47. Have you ever been high?No.

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?Most things that I hope nobody finds out about are things I haven’t done recently that I should (e.g. hygiene).

Also, I’m almost at 5k words worth of… listen, see question 9.

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?Good question. I don’t remember.

51. Ever wished you were someone else?Well… if “someone else” includes “a better version of myself,” then absolutely, yes, every moment I’m alive. If it involves leaving myself behind completely… then honestly, no, not particularly. I have no doubts that being someone else could be more enjoyable and productive than being me, but a) that’s not who I am, and b) it’d be impossible to vet a potential choice. I can’t know enough about someone to be 100% convinced I’d want to be them, even with their full cooperation.

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?Just one thing? Damn, um…

How about this: I’d add a bunch of experiences to my past where I overcame failure and adversity and where opening myself up to new experiences resulted in success. Hopefully that’d work? And it’d empower me to fix the rest of the shit I want to change (and the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom etc etc) in a constructive fashion that I could then help others with?

53. Favourite makeup brand?n/a.

54. Favourite store?Capitalism is flawed. That’s not to say it’s categorically worse than any particular alternative, however, so um… 

Uh, screw it. The Cards Against Humanity store? I’ve never bought anything from them, but it seems like a unique take on… stores.

55. Favourite blog?Do the annotations under each post of the webcomic Leftover Soup count as a blog?

57. Favourite food?I’m going to answer this in a separate post.

58. Last thing you ate?Corn chips.

59. First thing you ate this morning?Corn chips.

60. Ever won a competition? For what?I won a poetry contest in high school. It was the result of a writing exercise of using your non-dominant hand to activate different pathways in your brain. I recommend it.

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?Nope. I went on medical leave, then dropped out. Then I dropped out a bunch more times without the medical leave part.

62. Been arrested? For what?Nope.

63. Ever been in love? Mhmm.

65. Are you hungry right now?A little.

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?I take issue with the premise.

Actually, I guess I take issue with the premise in multiple ways… I have no idea if anyone whom I think of as a friend thinks of me the same way in return, so the answer might well be “not applicable.”

67. Facebook or Twitter?Well… they serve different purposes. I’d rather have them both (just without algorithmic feeds or ads-that-look-like-content.)

68. Twitter or Tumblr?Again, they serve different purposes.

69. Are you watching tv right now?No.

70. Names of your bestfriends? See 66.

71. Craving something? What?Community. Specifically, a community of learners, as John Green would say.

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?Yep!

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?My childhood ones are in boxes. Probably 50+.

75. Favourite animal?To be? Human. Presumably.

To have as a pet? Maybe cat, but to be honest, I bet I’d be just as into lots of other pet types.

Overall? I couldn’t pick one.

76. What colour is your underwear?Plaid.

77. Chocolate or Vanilla?Vanilla, if I had to pick. Chocolate is less versatile.

78. Favourite ice cream flavour?Banana, strawberry, cream, vanilla. Plenty I’m probably forgetting. I remember liking Cherry Garcia.

79. What colour shirt are you wearing?Red.

81. Favourite tv show?The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. (Also, see 119.)

82. Favourite movie?I always go with Spirited Away. (Also, see 119.)

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?n/a

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?n/a

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?n/a

86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?Uhh… Squirt, maybe? I guess? I dunno… it wasn’t a movie full of strong characters, in my opinion.

87. First person you talked to today?My mom.

89. Name a person you hate?Hate is a strong word to apply to a person, as opposed to a person’s actions. I find it hard not to try and understand why people do bad things, and subsequently find it hard to hate people for taking actions that I understand the reasoning for. Sometimes that doesn’t quite work, however. Thus: incompetent mental health professionals. Not that I don’t have sympathy for them, but still.

90. Name a person you love?

I just wanted an excuse to use this picture twice.

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?Go find me an abusive ICE agent and I’ll consider it. I’m sure they have their reasons for what they do, and I definitely wouldn’t do it, but like, damn, people, what the actual fuck is wrong with you?

92. In a fight with someone?Mitch McConnell. Vote, people.

93. How many sweatpants do you have?One. Or rather, one pair. Does that make it two? Pants are weird.

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?Probably around 5.

95. Last movie you watched?…I don’t actually remember.

97. Favourite actor?Uhhh… hm. I can’t think of any, like, film or stage actors I even have an opinion on. Alton Brown is actually an actor, come to think of it. Not super high on him as a person, necessarily, but he’s certainly damn good at his job. Tom Hiddleston as Loki is pretty remarkable, too.

98. Do you tan a lot?I think I tan an average amount? I’m not really sure. What’s sun?

99. Have any pets?Nope!

100. How are you feeling?Tired.

101. Do you type fast?Nope. I have to look at the keyboard and I only use 6 fingers total. Yes, I am probably the tech enthusiast who is the worst typist.

102. Do you regret anything from your past?Yes.

103. Can you spell well?For the most part. Actually… I’m not sure what the average is for spelling ability, so could be yes, could be no. I think I can tell when the vast majority of words are spelled incorrectly, but I’m accustomed to spellcheck/google so my ability to correct them without help is limited.

105. Ever been to a bonfire party?I’ve been to parties where fires were made, so I guess so? There might be more to it than that, I dunno.

106. Ever broken someone’s heart?When I was younger, and pining over the idea of ever having any relationship, I thought about it a lot, wondering what it’d be like. In the sort of morbid curiosity way, y’know what I mean? Well, it sucks just as much as you figured, younger self.

107. Have you ever been on a horse?Nope, I’d like to, though.

108. What should you be doing?

Working on my fanfic (at 7k words so far!)

Finishing a bunch of disk imaging stuff to make my backups more robust

Signing up to volunteer at a nonprofit that trains the homeless and disadvantaged to prepare food, helping them get jobs and feeding homeless shelters

Going back to college

Political activism

Seeing an oral surgeon to get my wisdom teeth probably removed

Finishing a lot of interesting blog post drafts

Deleting my folder of nsfw fiction drafts

Therapy

Recording some let’s plays, and maybe working toward like a mini podcast or something

Closing some of the 195 browser tabs I have open

109. Is something irritating you right now?Yes: that those who can teach the lessons of how to live a fulfilling and productive life are not effectively connected with those who need those lessons.

And also around 700 other things.

110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?Hurt… where? I’m going to go with “no,” on the principle that I don’t feel it quite that way.

111. Do you have trust issues?See question 23.

113. What was your childhood nickname?n/a

114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?Yep.

115. Do you play the Wii?No, I don’t have any consoles.

116. Are you listening to music right now?No.

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?Sure. It’s pretty good. Cook the whole chicken.

118. Do you like Chinese food?Yes. The real stuff, preferably. (I’m ethnically Chinese, if you weren’t aware. See also: my next post, where I list my favorite foods.)

119. Favourite book?Are webcomics books? No? Damn.

I’m going to pull the same thing I always do with the favorite movie and favorite tv show questions and pick a work that I haven’t experienced since half my life ago, but remember sufficiently to consider changing that: Summerland, by Michael Chabon.

Edit from later: Actually, see question 150 for the real answer.

121. Are you mean?I don’t think so. I feel like I might be vindictive, acerbic, and sometimes downright hostile, though.

122. Is cheating ever okay?That depends how you define “okay.” Okay is a funny word. It can mean as little as “not the end of the world,” in which case sure, or as much as “perfectly fine,” in which case… I think it’s a no, by definition. If a behavior was 100% fine, I don’t think anyone would call it cheating.

This applies to multiple definitions of “cheating.”

123. Can you keep white shoes clean?If… there was a reason to, sure, I imagine so.

124. Do you believe in love at first sight?No. I believe in attraction at first sight that seamlessly transitions into love, but no.

125. Do you believe in true love?I have no idea what most people take “true love” to mean, so honestly, I’m going to go with no. Or, I guess, I look at the term as making a distinction between true and false love? That doesn’t really make the question make sense.

126. Are you currently bored?No, to the contrary, I have something I want to work on (fanfic) but I’m too tired to do it, which seems like the opposite of bored.

127. What makes you happy?

The happiness of others.

Making things. That can be fiction, words of analysis, visualizations of data (I have many spreadsheets), image edit memes, the occasional video, Twitter commentary, or, yes, ask posts.

Well-designed and/or well-engineered, elegant things.

Efficiency.

Justice. (By which I actually mean support for the wronged, not punishment for the wrongdoer. The second may or may not be warranted, but either way I don’t take particular pleasure in it.)

Forgetting about the reasons I should not be happy, for a little while. (This is not a good thing, but I cannot deny it is a true answer to the question.)

129. What your zodiac sign?Pisces.

130. Do you like subway?I like subways. I think Subway food is fine.

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?Again, opposite gender isn’t exactly a thing.

132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?Anyone who read my answer to question 10.

133. Favourite lyrics right now?

Enough—Anne Hills

134. Can you count to one million?No, Jimmy, it’s “may you count to one million.”

Wait, what?

135. Dumbest lie you ever told?“Nah, I really think I’m neurotypical.” To myself, about twice a day.

137. How tall are you?5½ feet or so.

138. Curly or Straight hair?What do I have? Straight. What would I pick to have? Straight, I guess. What would I pick in someone I was attracted to (which I presume is the intention of the question)? Whatever they liked/looked good with.

139. Brunette or Blonde?Either! (Well, neither, for myself.)

140. Summer or Winter?There is no darkness without the dawn etc etc.

141. Night or Day?There is no darkness without the dawn etc etc.

142. Favourite month?Can’t say I have a preference.

143. Are you a vegetarian?I really probably should be, considering I have moral and practical objections to eating meat. At the moment, though, no. 

145. Tea or Coffee?Neither/tea.

146. Was today a good day?It hasn’t really started yet.

147. Mars or Snickers?I can’t remember eating either.

148. What’s your favourite quote?

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,Courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference.

149. Do you believe in ghosts?Yes. They can do anything they put their minds to!

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?

The most beautiful things in life are unexpected, Clara.

- What the Moon Saw, by Laura Resau

…oh. Wait. I take it back: that’s my favorite book. I had forgotten about that book.

[hnd1a-aidanfarren-hart]

Clean White Research

Steve Jobs by Albert Watson (2006)

With this being such an iconic image, I almost felt like I couldn’t talk about clean white portraits without including it!

Albert Watson found Jobs to be a very charming man. Before they got started, they briefly chatted about computers, iPods, etc., but then quickly got to work on the shoot. Watson recalls Jobs arriving on set and scanning the studio. Within sixty seconds, Jobs had sussed that they were very well organised, and that he would be out in good time. In fact, the whole shoot was known to have taken no longer than fifteen minutes.

As to how the famous ‘thinking’ pose came about, Jobs actually suggested it himself, as he had used it before for a previous shoot a few years prior. Watson gladly accepted the suggestion, saying “if someone wants to give you something, you take it”. The impression you get from how Jobs is engaging directly with the viewer, is that he is a highly confident and intelligent individual. While this evidently is the case, it’s interesting to note that he was actually quite camera-shy and was uncomfortable being in the public eye.

Watson is known to be a master of his craft, and at the same time also considered to be “old school” in his approach, and the lighting setup for this photoshoot was fairly straightforward. The portrait was made with the use of three strobe lights. The key light was a white umbrella at f32 to the left of the camera. Two other umbrellas at f16 1/2 (-1 stop) were placed behind Jobs to the left and right. The result was an evenly lit background that removed any present shadows.

Morgan Freeman by Art Streiber

The initial reason I chose this photograph is because, well, it’s Morgan Freeman; everyone loves Morgan Freeman! He a very reassuring figure, and has the effect of setting people at ease. As I pondered this, the more I began to think about the various techniques that went into the portrait, and how they conveyed these different qualities.

Although dressed in a formal suit and tie, Freeman’s stance is quite casual, with his hands in his pockets. He is turned slightly away from the viewer, and positioned left of centre of the frame. This, I think, this has the effect of relaxing the viewer, as it appears less confrontational. While the black of his suit is almost silhouetted (the white of the shirt sleeve - indicating the position of his arm), Streiber uses the lighting effectively to highlight that recognisable Morgan Freeman expression.

Streiber is known for being highly conscientious in his approach to working with people, and wants his famous sitters to have a favourable experience He has said “I want my clients to come away from every encounter with me and my crew thinking that they’d like to work with us again.”

His aim is to achieve a look that is “organic and accessible”, while at the same time, retaining a sense of nobility in the subject. Streiber engages in his work almost like a film-director, which he feels is reassuring for celebrity sitters, that they know he’s in charge and he knows what he’s doing. He manages to do this while, at the same time, being very considerate and collaborative with his subjects. He will acknowledge their time limits, respect that they have shown up to do a job, and will share what he’s planning to do for the shoot and ask what they think about it.

Looking at the picture, I can very much imagine Streiber himself was put at ease!

Arnold Schwarzenegger by Richard Avedon

I chose this photograph because of how well I think Avedon conveys the well-known “badass” public image of Arnie. Being a big ‘Terminator’ fan, I’m very familiar with Schwarzenegger, and this photo encapsulates pretty much everything I know and love about him! The fact it is only the shoulders-up that’s featured, Arnie’s stern facial expression is all the more prominent. This is enhanced by the low camera angle and the strong tonal contrast between light and shadow achieved by the skilled use of lighting.

Avedon is noted for his portraits, which first appeared as fashion shoots. Later in his career, he did away with blurring and soft focus, and instead used strobe lighting which produced a harder light, which was starker.

Stylistically, the portraits and the fashion photographs are alike. The sitter’s face is usually facing forward, often filling the picture and sometimes printed with the black edges of the negative forming a frame. Printed in starkly contrasted black and white, Avedon’s subjects are isolated against a white background. The viewer is not able to locate the sitters within a context, and therefore are forced to focus on how their personalities are revealed by their faces and gestures.

Avedon believed that photography is a collaboration between a photographer and his subject, and enjoyed using stories to evoke specific reactions from his subjects and to play with their emotions, allowing him to capture the expressions he wanted to show.

Daniel Craig by Andy Gotts, from the exhibition “Behind The Mask” 2015

This portrait of Daniel Craig was taken by Andy Gotts, who is a London/New York based photographer – and a big James Bond fan. The portrait is included as part of Behind the Mask, which was a collaboration between Gotts and BAFTA Future Archive. This project included over a hundred international actors to have won or been nominated for a BAFTA since 1954. The exhibition, which took place in 2015, took over two years compile with Gotts travelling around the world in order to photograph film stars.

Gotts is mostly known for his distinctive black and white portraits of well-known Hollywood actors. The first celebrity Gotts photographed was Stephen Fry, who had been giving a talk at the college where Gotts was a nineteen year old student. This was the moment he knew that what he wanted to do was photograph actors, and that is what he did for the next twenty years. He has said that “it’s because people say, ‘do a job that interests you.’ I wouldn’t say photography really interests me, but movies do.”

A variety of things feed into Gotts work, however not so much the work of other photographers; although he admits to admiring the photography of Albert Watson, Richard Avedon, and the early work of David Bailey. The movies are probably his biggest influence, where he tries to take note of how the actors are lit in certain scenes. He also admires the work of certain painters, and the lighting they used and also everyday things can often influence him.

“According to Gotts, actors hate being photographed, and that about ninety percent of his portraits are done in the actors’ homes or at a hotel. He says, “That’s probably why they feel more comfortable - because when you do a shoot in a studio, it’s all very clinical. I try and get my shot within the first five, six, frames.”

Gotts developed his own style of lighting. Early on, while studying photography in 1989, he began to use Elinchrom flash heads as an alternative to the very heavy and bulky ones he was using. He likes either very soft or very hard lighting, and allows trial and error trial and error to inform which to use. Gotts has told the story of a time when he was in NYC shooting Christopher Walken, and his light meter broke during the shoot, so he mocked up a lighting set, not knowing if it would work or not. The resulting soft shot was so successful that it is a lighting style he still uses in emergencies.

Because, as he says “most shoots are different”, Gotts doesn’t have a common or standard setup that he uses, but he is known to use three ELC Pro HD heads, using a softbox or an Octa as his main light source, and also at times a grid on another light or a bounced light.

In the portrait of Daniel Craig, the facial expression, and the strong contrast between light and dark on his face encapsulates the very essence of Bond character.

Mick Jagger by David Bailey, 1964

David Bailey is a British photographer known for his advertising, celebrity, and fashion photographs. Bailey began photographing for British Vogue in 1960. His celebrity portraiture, known for stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting effects, is thought to have transformed celebrity photography.

This early photograph of Mick Jagger is considered a ‘Classic Bailey’, and is one of the portraits in a collection of 36 portraits of personalities from the arts, fashion and music scenes. This collection is called ‘Box of Pin-Ups’ was compiled in 1965, and was the start of a “stripped-back style and ruthless honesty” in Bailey’s portraiture. Jagger is one of the most photographed male faces in the world, yet it has been said that Bailey’s image of Jagger has a fresh and different look.

I cannot confess to being a Mick Jagger fan, but I liked this portrait. It is unusual in that the hood is used as a kind of a prop, and Jagger seems to be almost trying to hide by pulling up his fur-trimmed hood around him as if to shield himself from the camera. Jagger’s head and shoulders is cropped and fills the frame. This, as well as the fur-trim, gives a sense of uneasiness, and a more edgy feel. As a contrast, Jagger has a look of innocence in his expression, and his clasped hands below the hood catch the light and draw your eye away from his almost hypnotic gaze.

This portrait of Mick Jagger seems deceptively simple in its pose and composition, but Bailey makes it look simple. Bailey showed dramatic contrasts between light and dark and made use of strong compositional shapes, which resulted in this striking and memorable portrait.

[godsandvillainsrpg-blog]

Congratulations ALLIE! You have been accepted as CELINE CHAMBERS.

Note from Admin Hannah: If I had to put into one word how to describe this app, I would just have to say wow. There is nothing I love more than when an app is exactly how I picture every little detail - and yours did just that. With every description and every headcanon I was just saying in my head that is definitely Celine. From the way you described her relationship with Lucien, to quoting Sun Tzao in the first line of the sample, even the fact that her cat is her favorite child it was all just perfect.

Name: Allie

Age: 21

Preferred Pronouns: She/Her

Timezone: EST

Activity Level: Very active! I’m taking time off from waitressing for once so all I’ll be preoccupied with is classes.

Triggers: REMOVED

Anything Else? If you’d like to request an approved FC change, please do so here.

IN CHARACTER

Desired Character: Celine Chambers

Describe this character in your own words:

When it comes to weapons, Celine and a garrote are one in the same. What’s more lethal than possessing the conviction to seek out resistance, only to instinctively pull tighter when it’s found? If she were a season, be it fall. Dancing leaves falling from grace, a distraction from the bitter cold leering around the corner. The sole Lefevere daughter is Whiskey, dark and opaque; simultaneously warming your insides while sparking a fire. Some of our favorite things can be surprisingly sinister, but never as much as Celine Chambers.

Personally, I think that what forms a kind, soft, considerate person is their instinctual need to find love and acceptance. This is a search that Celine never knew, because was born right beside all the companionship and understanding she would ever need. As a child she never quite understood other people’s vulnerabilities until she realized that they didn’t have a Lucien. And while he is her greatest strength, he is also her biggest weakness. Being so connected to someone, makes it feel like there is a phantom limb when they aren’t around. In many ways she is codependent on him and he is a factor in every single one of her decisions. Some would even say, her achilles heel.

If I had to sum Celine up, it would probably be in the fact that while she considers Valentina a daughter, but instead of nurturing her she poisons her with malice. Honestly, to Celine that is the best nurturing a girl could get. It also speaks volumes that she is heartless enough to ignore her children as much as she can. Most mothers would be so proud to have a son as just completely good as Zaine, but she’s disgusted.

Having no soul to call her own, Celine has found mild amusement in testing out a multiplicity of artificial ones. She does the same with Louboutin’s and expensive cars, it all depends on what type of mood she’s in. This is how she ‘relates’ to others, finding the experience utterly nauseating and gleaning nothing from it except conformation that they’re hopelessly inferior. She’s taken bottom tier emotions such as empathy and kindness for a spin and they proved to be completely frivolous time and time again. So she no longer bothers with them, and if you ask her she’s better for it. There’s more time to sharpen her wit and strengthen her resolve.

Celine’s motives

1) Herself

2) Herself

3) Herself

4) Lucien

5) Herself

What drives Celine

1) Herself, in a Limited Edition Bugatti Veyron.

2) Her obsession with power and influence. It’s more than just an obsession, for Celine power and breathing go hand in hand.

3) Basic human need for destruction.

4) Distancing herself as far away from the mediocre life that she was born into.

5) But seriously, the one person who really drives her is Lucien of course. They feed off of each other and they are the most fabulously evil duo in the world. Whenever she wakes up missing a particular manipulative edge she calls up her brother and it snaps right back into place again.

Celine’s goals

1) To graduate from breaking people to breaking entire families and dynasties. It’s so much more fun, you know? She hardly got a kick out of creating her own empire, the real thrill is causing someone else’s to crumble.

2) Making sure that baby brother doesn’t bite the two hands that fed him all these years. Her biggest fear is that Giuliana will think she can be the Geppetto to their Pinocchio.

3) To break as many people as possible, and have fun doing it!

4) Staying away from her children and Selena as much as humanly possible.

5) Instill fear into the hearts of all those who cross her.

6) Remain eternally youthful.

What potential plots do you foresee for this character?

REMOVED

PARA SAMPLE

“When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.” Sun Tzu. The perfect piece of wind down literature to calm oneself to. Before Celine could begin to appreciate the quote in applying it to her own superior art of war, something that could only be a fucking banshee tore across the hall. A serine crimson smirk twisted into a quick grimace before her immaculate features turned completely neutral. Kiah’s sobs reverberated through walls that Celine had so been meaning to soundproof. Her assistant’s first task in Rome would be to create a place to retreat into utter silence. Pink silk slid against white satin as Celine reluctantly slipped out of bed. With one swift movement her manicured hand cupped her cool glass of wine. Rose colored robes bellowed around her, feathering against the floor with the momentum she used in approaching the doorway.

Leaning against the doorframe, bored eyes drank in the sight of spoiled girl fighting with her father. As Kiah alternated between screaming and crying, she decided the scene was rather unflattering. Sure, this was an acceptable tactic for Celine as an infant, back when she lacked basic motor skills. It wasn’t until she was finally a toddler that she realized there were far more respectable ways to get what she wanted. From the sound of things Harland was going to have to dangle his daughter’s- their daughter’s- bank account over her head until they landed in Rome. Unable to remember a time where she was in want for more money, Celine supposed she should pity those that were. However, the national debt was at an all time low, and she always regarded as cash dirty and unhygienic. What did it get you, really? Objects can be broken, considering the amount of tantrums she threw, Kiah should know that. A goddess’s currency was power, a concept her daughter failed to grasp.

Regardless, incessant arguing was a surefire way to kill the buzz provided by few glasses of wine and The Art of War. Serenity was the motivation for Celine’s swift intervention, eyes on her daughter as she approached, sipping her white wine. Red nails found their way across Harland’s wide muscular back, and it was no surprise when he visibly relaxed. “Mon cherì, let me know if I need to purchase four plane tickets- or three.” Not bothering to address Kiah with even a glance, she pressed a quick kiss to her husband’s cheek before descending the stairs. At least Zaine knew how to be quiet.

In the kitchen, Celine was greeted by the only tolerable child in the household; her Persian cat Jinx. Not to be mistaken for a family cat, Jinx spared not a single should from her wrath, save for Celine. Everyone avoided the furball, even Lucien, because the hate radiating off of her was palpable. It made her even more ruthless than Celine, and she loved and respected Jinx for that. It was clear the feline appreciated the sudden peace and quiet, as did her owner who was now topping off her glass of wine. “Rome. Jinxy.” Celine purred against soft fur as she scooped the cat against her chest. “We’re going to rule Rome.”

EXTRAS

001) Celine is bisexual, but prefers being with men because there’s something less thrilling in manipulating women.

002) She’s very into fashion, but in a classic way. Celine doesn’t like to display labels but there’s always the need to be the need to be the best dressed woman in the room.

003) Celine fawns and fusses over Christian, not because’s she’s genuinely concerned for his well being. Everyone watching, including them both, need to be subconsciously reminded that Celine was the number one woman in his life. She’s in charge.

004) White wine over red, because the latter stains your teeth, darling.

005) She spends more time with her cat Jinx than she does with her own children.

[anewhope4change-blog]

Social Media, Politics and “Howl”

Social media and politics- together, they have become a dangerous combination. In the world we live in today, they are a major component of our everyday culture. The trouble is, they have a bad reputation to do more harm than good. In fact, things have become so bad that: 

“Boundaries have blurred between personal and professional lives, as well as between nations, through international networks that bring people together as never before. It is vital, therefore, that all who implement social media strategies for organisations, or use it for personal purposes, are aware of what the digital world offers in the community, the political sphere and the workplace” (Reiman).

One key component to both things is perspective, particularly politics. When it comes to politics, a perspective can be influenced through the candidate’s platform which is, “A manifesto of principles and policies that a candidate or party seeks to be elected upon. Although important, US political platforms tend to be less detailed and binding than the equivalent manifestos of European parties” (Tomson). In addition, having social media can also provide a platform for politicians. 

However, there was a time when the culture was a little bit different. Picture yourself in America just after world war II. America in theory is on the upswing after winning the war in Europe and Japan. This perhaps would lead you to think that everything was good right? Not exactly. In the decade that followed the second world war, “Conformity was common, as young and old alike followed group norms rather than striking out on their own. Though men and women had been forced into new employment patterns during World War II, once the war was over, traditional roles were reaffirmed” (“The Culture of the 1950s”). There were some that were against the reoccurring culture of conformity and they became known as the Beat Generation. The overall motivation for the Beats was, “They fashioned a literature that was more bold, straightforward, and expressive than anything that had come before” (The Beat Generation) which was a conscious behavior on their part. The most controversial Beat was Allen Ginsberg who published Howlin which, “Ginsberg takes the reader/listener on a tour of the underside of America” (The Beat Generation). One such example is, “Who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night” (Ginsberg). With “Howl”, “There is a visceral rage against the system that requires conformity and selling-out. Foul language and slang are common throughout the work, as well as drug use and criminality. All of these things were shocking to the 1950s establishment” (The Beat Generation).

 Which brings me back to today. It was about a week and a half ago I wrote a creative manifesto after reading Ginsberg’s “Howl” and when he called out America’s culture at that time, I decided to follow suit: 

America; Land of the free home of the brave, 

Oh, really? 

In a world where tension is at an all-time high?

Where politics and media of all platforms control shape our perspectives? 

The world we live in today is not what we want.

That is just the first few stanzas and when I was writing this, it made me think about songs that are politically influenced such as “American Idiot” by Green Day or “B.Y.O.B” by System of a Down and I do reference those in the work: 

In a world where, “Television dreams of tomorrow” (Armstrong, et al.),

It’s a government system where to quote System of a Down, “You depend on our protection, yet you feed us lies from the table cloth” (Malakian and Tankian).

You see, things started to significantly turn after, “May 2, 2011, U.S. Special Forces raided an al-Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the world’s most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden” (Marks). That is actually referenced in the manifesto: 

Once the head was cut off the snake, 

it seemed that only one thing was left: ourselves 

For instance, “When we killed it all The hate was all we had” (Slipknot).

Ever since then it’s been nothing but political tension.  

Like Ginsberg calling out America’s culture going to back to the, “Visceral rage against the system that requires conformity and selling-out” (The Beat Generation), the manifesto is calling out the trends/actions that both politics and social media have committed. However, there is some good news when it comes to social media and politics. One such example is an article recently published by CNN in which, “Facebook and Twitter are reviewing and taking down posts that spread disinformation about how and when to vote on Election Day” (Collier) and, “Ahead of last year's midterm elections, Facebook and Twitter declared such posts against their policies and created methods for states to flag election-related misinformation for removal” (Collier) but, that’s not all. Recently, “Twitter (TWTR) will stop accepting political ads, the company's CEO, Jack Dorsey, announced Wednesday” (O'Sullivan and Fung). 

Politics and not just social media but mass media in general have come a long way and that is due particularly due to technological advancement. In fact, “Advancement in technology had a profound impact on the practice of statecraft” (P.R. 146) and so much so that, “It is technologies of social connection which has direct influence on international relations in the twenty-first century. In the age of globalisation and Internet, top-down alleyway communications have almost become meaningless” (P.R. 146) and it doesn’t stop there. As a result of the evolution, “Politicians are constantly seeking alternatives to social media as a dominant form of communicating to the public” (Owen).  With this comes with what lies ahead and, “Great uncertainly surrounds the future of political communication” (Owen). However, there is some hope for these trends to provide some insight.  One benefit includes, “Issues and events that might be outside the purview of mainstream journalists can be brought to prominence by ordinary citizens” (Owen). Social Media and politics seem to bring nothing but negativity especially lately but hopefully actions performed by companies such as Twitter and other events such as gaining insight from the news will keep the good of media intact.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Billie J., et al. "Green Day American Idiot." Genius, 21 Sept. 2004, genius.com/Green-day-american-idiot-lyrics. Collier, Kevin. "Social Media Companies Remove Posts Spreading Disinformation About Election Day." CNN, 6 Nov. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/11/05/politics/social-media-companies-disinformation-election-day/. 

Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl by Allen Ginsberg." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl. 

Malakian, Daron, and Serj Tankian. "System of a Down B.Y.O.B." Genius, 17 May 2005, genius.com/System-of-a-down-byob-lyrics. 

Reiman, Cornelis. "social media growth and global change." Public Interest and Private Rights in Social Media, PDF File, 2012, p. 36. Marks, Julie. "How SEAL Team Six Took Out Osama Bin Laden." HISTORY, 24 May 2018, www.history.com/news/osama-bin-laden-death-seal-team-six. 

O'Sullivan, Donie, and Brian Fung,. "Twitter Will Ban Political Ads, Jack Dorsey Announces." CNN, 31 Oct. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/tech/twitter-political-ads-2020-election/index.html. 

Owen, Diana. "The Past Decade and Future of Political Media: The Ascendance of Social Media." OpenMind, 2019, www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/the-past-decade-and-future-of-political-media-the-ascendance-of-social-media/. 

P. R., Biju. "Internet Diplomacy." Political Internet State and Politics in the Age of Social Media, 2016, p. 146,  www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315389929. 

Slipknot. "Slipknot Psychosocial." Genius, 20 Aug. 2008, genius.com/Slipknot-psychosocial-lyrics.

"The Beat Generation." The Literature Network, www.online-literature.com/periods/beat.php. 

"The Culture of the 1950s." American History from Revolution to Reconstruction and Beyond, 1994, www.let.rug.nl/usa/outlines/history-1994/postwar-america/the-culture-of-the-1950s.php. 

Tomson, Alex. A Glossary of US Politics and Government. online read, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 136.