#it sums my additions up much more concisely

[hollowwhisperings]

agreed.

the series made a point - multiple times! - that "hawkmoth vs cat noir = everyone loses". it was one of the key elements to maintaining the need for ladbug&catnoir to NOT know each other's true identities (and thus ensure the plot relevance of the love square).

there is no way to write a 14-year old facing their abusive parent in a way both consistent with the show thus far (s5 was all about emotional honesty & the series overall is idealistic)... and "kid-friendly".

it is a very, VERY bad idea to put a child in open confrontation with a parent like gabriel agreste.

not just dangerous in a "boss fight" kind of way but in a "you are putting a kid into a violent situation with their caregiver".

adrien (& thus cat noir) would NOT be able to fight his own father. hawkmoth/monarch could not be "taken down" without secret identities getting revealed because, for one thing, ladybug was only able to locate him because she LEARNED HIS IDENTITY. the "win" condition for S5 was the yoinking of gabriel's miraculous: i was very impressed by the boldness of the show in how the "ladybug vs monarch" finale went down. how much of its "something is OFF here" was deliberate versus being due to "we only planned for 5 seasons but got renewed for 3 more" has yet to be seen.

i suspect that gabriel "winning" was planned well in-advance, though the specifics of his redemption/changed!wish likely changed over time. the wish & "gimmi" were just too well-designed within the series lore to go unused. the full zodiac's worth of extra miraculous? THAT screams "this cartoon is trying to sell you merchandise"... standard practice for modern animation, tbh.

the extra miraculous DID allow the series to narratively set up its audience for how a "villainous victory" would affect the characters, their relationships with each other, and the story being told. shadowmoth's triumph, his claiming most every miraculous, was ALSO a very convenient means for the writers to get rid of all those "made for merch" super allies (from seasons 3&4) ahead of s5's Serious Plot Business.

oh! another reason why "cat noir vs gabriel agreste = everyone loses", aside from "do not try IRL" family dynamics, "hawkmoth is supposed to win" & love square retension for seasons 5+?

adrien is literally incapable of disobeying his father. not just because "do not try this at home" (effects of abusive family dynamics) but, like, actual magic. felix tried to get adrien's control ring from gabriel, like, 3 times? across different seasons? he kept failing. neither marinette nor adrien were going to succeed in ignorance where FELIX had failed (he had a whole villain arc about it). unless the writers wanted to write seasons 6+ of miraculous WITHOUT a lovesquare? ladybug AND gabriel needed to be oblivious as to HOW cat nr's presence consistently resulted in Bad Timelines for everyone: in the s5 finale proper, ladybug is only able to defeat monarch because... gabriel freaked out about how close her cataclysm-ready hand was to ADRIEN'S AMOK (&control ring). since ladybug is an idealistic teenager & gabriel was an increasingly immoral (& privately wealthy) supervillain? the ONLY way ladybug could have defeated monarch is via unwittingly threatening gabriel's son out of existence... or by killing him.

even then ladybug still - technically! - only defeated hawkmoth/monarch by getting gabriel agreste killed. from the POV of [future plot devices] & herself, anyway.

(that monarch was "dying via cat noir" anyway is just more fodder for the continued presence of the lovesquare/"ladybug & cat noir cannot reveal their true identities to each other")

for all the reasons above & more, cat noir could NOT have been present for the final battle against hawkmoth/monarch. it would have been a plot-holed character assassinating scenario RIDDLED with unpleasant, kid-UNfriendly Unfortunate Implications.

Honestly I think my take on the "Chat Noir was not there in the final battle" comes down to the fact that I kind of just don't think a satisfying final battle between Chat Noir and Monarch was actually possible.

I read a lot of fic, for example, and I've read the scenario play out a lot of times in a ton of ways and I've never been fully convinced of it tbh (and not because they weren't great fic!!). It seems just completely traumatic for Adrien in a way that the scenario inherently cannot properly focus on, because it's all happening in the middle of an action scene and Adrien is too busy being Mid-Battle to properly have a cathartic breakdown about it all. I mean, Chat Blanc already showed us what would happen if he did have a breakdown mid-battle (and why wouldn't he?). And though it'd be fun to have a big triumphant moment of him defeating his abusive father, Adrien simply isn't a character who would find that scenario triumphant, or cathartic, or anything other than viscerally traumatic.

Also, I agree that it's unfair that Chat Noir was not present— like it was unfairly tilted in Ladybug's favor— but I don't think it'd be fair if he was present, either. Because Marinette is, in fact, the main character. The main character whose character arc is primarily focused on her finding her footing as a hero and discovering all the responsibilities that come with that power (as opposed to Adrien, whose character arc is moreso about freedom and identity). And let's face it, in a fight between Ladybug and Chat Noir and Monarch, nobody would be focused on Ladybug at all. It's not about her. It's not her fight. She'd just be there as moral support and an extra set of hands, which really doesn't work for her character arc at all and is completely unfair to her!

Basically, it would just be Chat Noir temporarily acting as the main character and having the worst time of his life in the most un-cathartic battle for him possible left completely traumatized with Ladybug in the background awkwardly trying to comfort him after the fact? And then the season ends? And then the next season presumably goes back to Ladybug being the main character? After a time-skip to the new school year? It's just an ending that I feel like is a lot better in theory than actually on paper. And you can probably make an argument for ways that it could be made to work, where it would enhance Ladybug's story in a meaningful way where she still feels like the main character, and would somehow be triumphant for Chat Noir despite it probably being the worst moment of his life, and somehow not make the rest of the series following feel like bonus content as opposed to a continuation of the story...... but, I dunno. I think it's a lot easier said than done.

The fact of the matter is, I've always been waaayyyy more interested in how the aftermath of Gabriel's defeat affects Adrien than the battle itself. Post-Hawkmoth defeat is one of my favorite types of fic for a reason, and it's because the aftermath can be so juicy, especially for Adrien as a character. I think whether or not Adrien is actually there in the battle itself has always been kind of irrelevant to me, because no matter how Gabriel is defeated, his defeat will have immense repercussions on Adrien's life going forward. And the way they did it, Marinette is now a part of it in a more active way, too. Which is good for her character!

( Also, if he was there to triumphantly defeat Gabriel, would that mean he would just.... watch his father die? of cataclysm? a-and.... nathalie would just.... die, too? so he'd have three dead parents after all that? who he watched all die (or, in emilie's case, saw her corpse)? or is this a scenario where MONARCH BEATS CHAT NOIR and still makes the wish? is that cathartic? for Adrien to lose to Gabriel? Frankly, I loved seeing Gimmi and The Wish, it's been teased for so long that I was expecting it, and I loved the fact that Nathalie got to live as her narrative reward for coming to her senses and trying to murder Gabriel with a crossbow. I like that we got to watch a full season of Gabriel painfully dying to a cataclysm— poetically inflicted on him by Adrien, but of Gabriel's own doing. I like that Nathalie has presumably adopted Adrien after having an arc of her trying to be a parent to him once she realized nobody else would, that's so much more interesting than any other alternative. I just don't see how all of these things, some of my favorite things that season 5 gave, can still all exist at once with Chat Noir present in the final battle in any way that's satisfying. )

[skaruresonic]

Count me in as another one who got preemptively blocked. Posts like the Metal Sonic one are why I nowadays prefer to be as concise as possible with whatever I have to say unless I *have* to elaborate. Posts like that one seem to promote the idea that quantity of words is quality, that if you say a bunch of baseless nonsense, the quantity of said nonsense (and its "passion") translates to actually knowing what they're talking about.

Count me in as another one who got preemptively blocked.

You, too?

Well. If I had my suspicions about the existence of a blocklist before, now they've become a hell of a lot stronger. People don't block me under this name because they probably know me better by my old handle.

I wonder what it says. Probably some mishmash of telephone, made-up accusations, stuff like "They think Flynn is literal Satan," "They gag on Sega's boots" and "They all condone death threats and harass people! (ignores the million threats and instances of harassment we've received)"

Posts like that one seem to promote the idea that quantity of words is quality, that if you say a bunch of baseless nonsense, the quantity of said nonsense (and its "passion") translates to actually knowing what they're talking about.

I don't know if quantity is a factor so much as surface-level emotionality. @woodchipp found a, er, piece of "writing advice" by Omocat which succinctly sums up the concept as "feels before reals."

Whatever emotional truths people are predisposed to believe matter more to them than accuracy or logic.

You'll notice posts of this nature tend to use very loaded and definite language, in addition to a noticeable lack of concrete examples. They say lofty things about the games and characters without much nuance or qualifiers to dilute them, because nuance is pesky, and qualifiers get in the way of making A Statement. It becomes little wonder that the truth gets lost along the way. They speak to the emotional truths of people, which are then ruined by canon or logic. If you buy into Metal's existential crisis and you find it poignant, naturally, you're going to exaggerate that part and perhaps neglect or forget the part where he egomaniacally claims he's going to become the "supreme being" of the world and rule a giant robot kingdom. The former doesn't fit your presupposed picture of Metal as an uwu identity-crisis angst-having boy, but it's important not to miss because it's an example of Metal exerting agency. Without it, he's just a passive receptacle of fate: according to OP, he may have "asked" Eggman to remove his voice.

Personally, I think the idea that Metal has an identity crisis of not being the "real Sonic" was a canon-migrant idea that leaked from the OVA into our understanding of the games. And that, even if we were to accept it, by this point too little has been done with it to really mean much.

I would have been willing to have that conversation with them about that - I genuinely feel the games haven't handled it well - but because I'm not willing to say "fuck the games" all the way and like, toss them in the trash or whatever, I guess whatever I said must not have merit. Something something Sega shill.

All that being said, this stuff is actually getting pretty comical.

[mediafinal23]

Introduction To New Media Final '23

This thread is a final project made for my FNMS 231 Introduction To New Media class, analyzing how the digitization of literature has impacted culture and society as it evolves. How did we go from purely written works circulated in niche book clubs to the ever-evolving mass of online literature and media-curated communities? 

I would be remiss not to start this by addressing the debate of what constitutes literature in the first place. The definition varies depending on the audience asked, which literary critic Jonathan Culler sums up neatly in his work What is Literature and Does it Matter? when he states that the answer of a five-year-old will vastly differ from that of a literary critic, and a better way to look at the definition is to ask ourselves what makes someone treat work as literature. However, one of my college peers defined it as "written work that has some meaning to its readers." Ultimately, the terminology is up to individual interpretation, but this thread will be discussing literature as an entity that contains written works such as novels, research papers, news articles, and other creative written works such as fan fiction and poetry. For the sake of practicality and conciseness, this will also only focus on the digital evolution of 'English' literature. If you're interested in reading more of Culler's thoughts, they can be found here. 

With this context, the original form of 'English' literature dates back to approximately 975-1025 CE with the poem Beowulf, an Old English period work about a hero-turned-king. Obviously, this pre-dates any digital technology by far, but it's essential to start with the beginning in order to dissect the timeline efficiently. There are eight different periods of English literature, ranging from Old English to the current Postmodern phase. The names of all the ones in between, with additional information, can be found here in the archives of The Library of Congress. Throughout this, the physical manifestations of literature have developed over time, leading to its current digital presence. Long gone are the days of writing on strips of papyrus or painstakingly making one copy of a book at a time, either by hand or printing press.

The first record of digitized ‘English’ literature was in 1952 when Christopher Strachey created a love letter generator that operated precisely how it sounded and was considered literature. From there, literature slowly began to be incorporated online until it was flung into the world of media with the arrival of the ebook around 1998. Sony came out with a Data Discman, which, to my understanding, operated as CDs that would portray text onto a screen, and another company named NuvoMedia produced their product, which they dubbed the ‘Rocket eBook.’ For the first time, entire novels were available at the push of a button rather than a trek to the nearest library or bookstore. Despite this, reading digitally didn’t truly become socially accepted until the release of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007. The first version of the Kindle was already relatively advanced and allowed buyers/readers to have access to 200 books, along with limited internet access. 

This impacted society in multiple ways. First of all, due to the accessibility and easy access to online novels, libraries began to have a diminished amount of visitors and patrons. To keep up with society, they began loaning out ebooks to draw people in once more. Fortunately for them, certain publishing houses didn’t participate in Kindle’s program, and the newer in-demand books stayed in their physical manifestation to be checked out from libraries or bought at a bookstore. Secondly, more people began to read the literature surrounding them - just not in its traditional form. Nevertheless, it provided a new topic for society to address and made it much easier for people to talk about literature with such easy access to popular novels. 

Cartoon by Jim Morin, published in the Miami Herald, in July 2010.

With this new digital era arrived a new issue: ebook piracy. Despite 'English' literature being more accessible to obtain, the companies releasing the ebooks still charged users a fee to access their expanding online library. Since people were already pirating music, books were the next logical course of action. This heavily impacted the book industry, a topic that the Author's Guild broached semi-recently: "Each year, the publishing industry loses hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales to piracy—and with each lost sale, authors lose royalty income. There is a clear correlation between the decline in income from writing and the exponential growth of online pirate channels dedicated to distributing and selling illegal ebook copies." Continue reading this article here. 

Oral stories have always been a part of literature and pre-dates the practice of writing anything down. In fact, most of the older written works stem from stories passed down through generations by speech alone. According to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), audiobooks were first created via vinyl in 1932 for individuals who were visually impaired, with some of the first works recorded being some of Shakespeare's plays and The Constitution. That particular part of the literature industry has expanded largely, with them being utilized by a large section of English society today. Students who are auditory learners have found them to be extremely useful in academic settings, and those who do not have the attention span necessary for a physical book have enjoyed being able to hear the words as they do other activities, such as driving or walking.

It could be argued that the many forms of online literature have cultivated a more robust reading community. More people across the world have access to the same materials and content and can gain each other's perspective on the works through platforms such as Tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. In the late 2000s, entire blog pages were dedicated to discussing specific books and sharing opinions with others, and many are still active today. More recently, a social media group known as 'BookTok' formed on TikTok, where creators post videos about their favorite books, pieces of literature, and even screenshots of digitized copies of their latest read. Many of these creators will tag others in their posts, curating a group united entirely through their love of reading. Without the online presence of 'English' literature, this group would have far fewer participants and less of an impact. It has allowed individuals to expand on their own creativity and keep literature relevant in a media society. 

Speaking of creativity, having platforms dedicated to literature has led to another outlet for hyper-fixated individuals on certain books, genres, or ‘fandoms.’ Fanfiction has become a large yet not entirely socially accepted part of literature, where individuals rewrite or make extensions of their favorite works. While it applies to movies and celebrities, a large portion of the community relies on books and literary works. Apps such as Wattpad provided a place for these individuals to collaborate and share their work - yet another place for literature to be uploaded online (although there is a considerable debate on whether fanfiction counts as literature - based on the definition of literature that was declared at the beginning of this thread, it does). More websites were soon to follow, the most popular being a platform called Archive Of Our Own, fondly referred to as AO3 by its users. The anonymous creators on this platform let their imaginations run wild and often update classic/popular books to reflect on the current state of society. For example, in 2017, an individual with the username MsKingBean89 uploaded a 188-chapter Harry Potter ‘fic’ about the generation before the one that the series revolves around. With over 50 translations available, this rewrite of the Harry Potter backstory referenced social issues such as class issues, politics, and homophobia. With over 12 million readers, it has primarily impacted platforms such as ‘BookTok’ and inspired the creation of multiple other literary works. 

So, time for a recap:

The forms of literature have evolved far beyond what could have ever been predicted and continue to do so.

Kindles and other ebooks have caused a decline in library usage and bookstore shoppers.

Audiobooks are an academic tool that doubles as literary entertainment.

The digitalization of literature has allowed society to connect even more, and ‘BookTok’ has replaced traditional book clubs.

And last but certainly not least, individuals have taken the production of literature into their own hands to curate socially accepted works. 

[yb-cringe]

Please continue with the sudden character analyses, I’ve never seen Gem’s whole character motivation summed up so concisely

ohohoh my god you’ve enabled me ive been enabled—

day fuckin one i want yall to know c!gem has been the coolest character with actual depth to her actions and its genuinely amazing and kudos to cc!gem for thinking through how her character acts bc she gave her FLAWS and its so refreshing

first of all here’s the hottest take i have; WRA are by many definitions ‘Antagonists’ and all four members within WRA are on the lower end of moral alignment (mostly within the lawful neutral to chaotic neutral) and most if not all of them are chaotic neutral.

Short definition but lawful neutral is a character who follows their own whims- they’re an individual- and avoids restrictions upon that freedom. they dont go out of their way to do the morally good thing like uprooting evil unless it really sways them personally.

And c!gem is a part of this! don’t take this as me saying she’s a bad person (she opened the academy, she lets in students without discrimination, she helps clean up problems when she is affiliated with the cause of them happening) but she’s simply a person with a goal and she works towards that goal and along the way she doesn’t pay much attention to the moral right or wrong— rather what would cause the most problems for the group (inconvenience < morally wrong)

C!gem’s main drive is knowledge, specifically the spreading of knowledge and the greater understanding of magic. Secondary to that, i’d say her drive is to keep her loved ones safe. But again, she’s not a Bad Person its just that her morality gets a little funky bc I don’t think she usually realizes what she does is immoral (probably because shes lived alone with just c!fwhip as they grew up god knows where, they’re very isolationist and spending all the time alone means you don’t learn to realize what you do impacts people beyond your bubble but thats more hc territory)Examples including;

- giving c!jimmy the answers to her puzzle that blocked the end with the caveat of ‘this will cost you’, with the addition that she didn’t actually think c!jimmy would be able to finish the puzzles meaning she wouldve gotten an IOU for free

- her and c!fwhip getting so caught up in their plan that they didn’t stop to ask anyone if killing the dragon was a bad idea because again, they didn’t think they’d be able to do the puzzles in the first place

- c!gem not seeing any issue in c!sausage and c!fwhip blowing a ravine between mythland and the codlands and actually approving of it/ not understanding why c!jimmy was so upset

- casting a spell on c!sausage with the implied knowledge that she’ll be splitting his soul in two in order to contain the corruption within him (the amulet, apparently, does nothing- it was just to help him believe in himself)

- we can also throw her pressuring c!scott on that spell in here because again she didnt do it to be mean but since her main goal is knowledge and education/magic, she’s used to just. pushing through and not realizing that This Doesnt Work for everyone (as evident from. c!scott just throwing ice magic everywhere)

TL;DR— c!gem is morally grey because she doesn’t really understand how she needs to think through the ethical implications of what she does bc she’s so focused on the logical process. it can also be said that in the moments where she does see morally grey actions, she doesn’t take a lot of offense to them if it makes sense logistically (aka; why would c!jimmy be mad about us blowing up an area between him and sausage’s base? its for peace!)

[daesungindistress]

Not to keep talking about him, but you said he’s regarded as the worst k-celebrity? That’s weird that they deem him worst than his “friends”. Maybe because his shit is STILL dragging on months later?

The molka stuff was only a small part of a much larger scandal. The reason there’s still so much discourse about it among VIPs is because, based on my observations at the time, his presence in the molka chats is what prompted most fans to drop him (and many of them stopped paying attention after that). His remaining fans know this and are focusing so much of their fight on that in an effort to reverse the narrative and regain support for him. It’s a complete waste of time though; they’re running circles around themselves trying to disprove something Seungri himself already admitted to ages ago. “Those messages aren’t my entire life,” he said when asked why he didn’t reprimand JJY for the illegal videos he shared in the chats. He was there, he saw, he knew.

(What’s funny is they can’t even keep their own stories straight; I’ve had anons in my inbox the last few days trying to erase his presence in the chats with “It wasn’t Seungri, it was Lee Jonghyun!” and “It wasn’t Seungri, it was another Lee Seunghyun!” And not a peep about his Chosun interview. It sure is funny watching them trip over themselves trying to get it right when the answer has been right there in front of them all along.)

I think about this sometimes… how for those who weren’t in the fandom back then and/or weren’t following along, much of Seungri’s role in the Burning Sun controversy is going to be lost to time. New fans will take an interest in Big Bang and join the fandom and no doubt they’ll ask, “What happened to Seungri?” And there’s just no way to sum it all up cleanly and concisely. There’s too much. It would be nice to see someone put together a timeline of events, but I have a feeling the only people possessing that kind of dedication to the case nowadays are the fans still committed to defending him. No thanks.

Anyway, just for funsies, here’s a list of as many allegations as I can think of off the top of my head, with explanations that I tried (and failed ofc) to keep condensed. Just various things for anyone who’s new here…

- The alleged drugging and sexual assault of women by wealthy clients in the VIP room at the club Burning Sun. Burning Sun was widely known as Seungri’s club as he had spent the better part of the prior year (2018) promoting it, calling it his, DJ-ing there, etc… proudly boasting throughout his solo promotions about how, unlike most celebrities, he doesn’t just loan out his name and face, he manages his businesses himself. Because of this, no matter how hard he backpedaled when the news about Burning Sun broke, insisting that he wasn’t responsible for the day-to-day operations of the club and didn’t have a clue about what was happening there, there was no separating himself from it completely. He was in too deep already. Worse, media got their hands on some club documents and found that he did in fact have part-ownership of the club – he was one of its investors and was even listed as the executive director. Granted, the percentage of shares he held was a very small one, but he really should have been forthcoming with that info from the start because this is what began the narrative that painted him as a liar. Or should I say he outed himself as one.

- Widespread corruption within the police force. Not just with regards to Burning Sun but many bars and clubs throughout the Gangnam area. It was suspected that local police had arrangements with the clubs to look the other way and often neglected to investigate crimes being reported on their premises. Minors entering the clubs, drug use, sexual violence, etc. This leads to…

- Police collusion… i.e., suspicions of having friends in high places. Seungri was in a chat with friends in which they discussed Choi Jonghoon having a DUI covered up and kept quiet, the news suppressed. Not even his own agency knew. Seungri said, “Don’t think that it’ll be covered up the next time you drink and drive. [Name redacted] hyung used his own money to keep them from telling.” His “Korean law is shit, that’s why I love it” comment in another chat didn’t earn him any brownie points with the public either.

- More on bribing the police: Seungri and his business partner Yoo Insuk had connections with a high-ranking police official, one referred to in the chats as “police chief”. This turned out to be Superintendent Yoon, who was suspected of alerting them to violations related to his other club, Monkey Museum, and helping them avoid prosecution for it. Seungri had registered the business as a general restaurant but began operating the business outside the limits of an ordinary restaurant (installing a stage, dance floor, etc) despite being aware that it could become a legal issue down the road. He was suspected to have done so for the purpose of paying lower taxes.

This is where the Food & Sanitation Act charge comes in. Not especially major in itself, the bigger issue was Seungri suggesting in the chats that they could just bribe the police if there was ever a crackdown.

Superintendent Yoon had meals and went on golf outings with Seungri & Yoo Insuk. They said that he paid for his portion every time, however it was found that SR & Yoo had in fact treated him on a few occasions. Big Bang concert tickets were also given as gifts. However, it was determined that the value of what they gave him didn’t quite meet the threshold to be considered a crime, so bribery charges were dropped… on a technicality. Superintendent Yoon is currently being detained on abuse of power charges related to another case.

- Financial crimes, i.e., embezzlement of Burning Sun funds (together with Yoo Insuk, totaling almost a million dollars) and embezzlement of funds from Monkey Museum to pay the attorney’s fees for a DJ accused of sexual assault.

- Prostitution mediation, i.e., arranging sex workers for foreign investors of his 2015 startup Yuri Holdings. He was investigated for 2 instances of this occurring in late 2015 (Club Arena and the “Seung-tsby” Christmas Party), and another at his big birthday bash in the Philippines in 2017. Charges related to the Philippines party were dropped as it couldn’t “legally be seen as prostitution” but I personally think the evidence presented is substantial enough to warrant suspicion.

- Soliciting prostitution for himself. At first he claimed it was “someone he knew before” and said he hadn’t paid her for sex, but police were able to trace payment records back to the establishment where she worked. He reportedly admitted to the charge at his arrest warrant hearing in May.

- Molka (spycam), i.e., secretly filmed photos and videos of women in sexual situations, taken by Seungri’s friends and business partners and shared in a group chat in which he was present. Questions were raised about why he didn’t at least reprimand them. It was later discovered that not only were the victims filmed without their consent, many of them had been drugged and raped… and some were even used against the women as blackmail.

- Instigating the destruction of evidence by advising his friends to change their phones when these chats were released to the public. Reportedly, of the phones handed to police, all but one were new / wiped clean.

- Here’s something I’ll forever be curious about: it was reported that Seungri had been using Burning Sun funds to pay his YGE-appointed manager a separate salary (in addition to his regular salary from the agency) without informing the company. And it was no small amount. I’m not sure why he did this or why, exactly, it’s a problem, but apparently it’s a big no-no because when YGE learned of it Seungri’s manager was promptly let go.

- Gambling. This first came up back in the spring when a chat was released that showed Seungri talking about money he’d won through gambling and telling a business acquaintance he could win big too. In response to this, Seungri said he was only “bluffing”, that he hadn’t really won any money through gambling… Well, months later he was formally called in for questioning on suspicions of habitual gambling and illegal currency exchange transactions. The currency exchange suspicions were dropped in the end, the gambling charge he reportedly admitted to. As for that chat? I think it’s safe to say he wasn’t bluffing that day.

- There was also that gross chat that appeared to show him offering women to a business acquaintance? The man was traveling and asked for a woman, and Seungri responded with photos of a few women, detailed descriptions of their personalities, and price. Pretty sure this is where the trafficking accusations you still see floating around occasionally come from. His explanation for that was essentially “It wasn’t what it looked like.” He said it was about travel companions, not sex, and they never went through with it. IDK what to make of it, but let’s be honest, that was going to reflect badly on him no matter how he spun it.

- Things got really wild when speculation about him having connections to the Chinese triad (organized crime) started up due to his business relationship with a powerful woman known as Madam Lin. She was one of his investors and according to police statements, is believed to have aided in helping him embezzle funds from Burning Sun. Korean police summoned her for questioning and requested her cooperation multiple times to no avail.

…I’ll stop there, but just keep in mind there is more, suspicions that didn’t seem to lead anywhere in the end but that dealt blow after blow after blow to what little was left of his reputation. The whole thing became mind-boggling. I think it’s easier for us as IVIPs to forget the fervor that swept the nation as this scandal erupted because we weren’t really there for it, not in the same way as Koreans who must have seen it plastered across every major news station day in and day out for months… people who saw their fellow citizens protesting in the streets against the atrocities reported at Burning Sun and the corruption in the police force that failed to prevent it. And yes… in a way, it’s still dragging on. Seungri was known for having connections everywhere, even where you’d least expect it; here that reputation of his worked against him as the floodgates opened and he became the connecting piece for all the nasty that came pouring out. And you know what they say: the bigger they are, the harder they fall. He wanted to be famous. Now he’s infamous.

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome (again) to the Order of the Phoenix, Amos!

You have been accepted for the role of non-biography character MAURICE CREEVEY with the faceclaim of Tom Sturridge! We really enjoyed reading through your application! The idea of a Muggleborn character who is actually not all that excited about going to Hogwarts is awesome! He’s resentful that he was taken away without a choice - resentful that he can’t go back and be the same person. We’re so thrilled to have him as an addition to the cast!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Amos

AGE: 22

TIMEZONE: GMT

ACTIVITY LEVEL: You already have a pretty good idea of my activity. There is also plenty of time when I’m around and could be writing but I am either caught up on Fab or don’t have quite the right muse for him, so hopefully this new charrie can fill those gaps!

ANYTHING ELSE: nope

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Maurice Creevey

AGE: 24

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Male, He/Him, Homosexual. Gender isn’t something he’s really ever thought about. He’s pretty content in that respect. He is quite unapologetically gay though.

BLOOD STATUS: Muggleborn

HOUSE ALUMNI: Ravenclaw

ANY CHANGES: This is where you can request a FC change or a change from something in the skeleton bio.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY: 

To sum Maurice up very concisely, he’s angry. He hasn’t always been. He was a relatively happy go lucky child, full of endless energy and enthusiasm. Then he was plucked from his life and sent away to a school to learn magic. At first that was pretty cool, after all, every 11 year old wishes they had magical abilities, the difference being they get to grow up and forget those wishes and live normal lives. He has to live with his childish fantasies for the rest of his life. And apart from that, he appears to be in a world where muggleborns are being hunted and killed by an evil wizard and his crazy cult. To make things worse, they can’t escape back to their muggle lives because of all the damn secrecy laws. So yes, he’s angry, and a lot of his actions are fueled by that. Make no mistake though, Maurice is no Gryffindor, he doesn’t use his anger in brash reckless ways, he is more calculated. You may catch it crackling under the surface occasionally, but it would take a lot to make him properly explode. Even slurs like ‘mudblood’ would only make him roll his eyes and perhaps give a snarky retort.

Maurice is a Ravenclaw. He is a big believer that knowledge is power. He did fairly well at his subjects in Hogwarts considering he didn’t try all that hard. He did not choose this path and as a consequence, resented it. He would often get his brother who was a few years older, to send him muggle textbooks when he’d finished with them. He was fascinated by science and maths and history. Of course he had some curiosity for his lessons at Hogwarts, and the things he and his magic was capable of, but the element of choice was important for him. It felt like by attending Hogwarts, a whole area of understanding was suddenly off limits. As anyone knows, forbidden knowledge is the most desirable.

He likes to ask questions about as much as any other Ravenclaw, but he is also a big observer. He likes to take time to gather information before jumping into a lot of things, especially interactions with other people. He by no means stalks people, but a few minutes, to watch, take someone in, before starting a conversation is quite usual for him. It’s all about making informed choices.  As a consequence, unexpected interactions can throw him, making him more awkward than he’d like.

He can be arrogant, he has a conviction in his beliefs that can come across as condescension if viewed the wrong way. He can get frustrated when someone is not following his thinking quite as quickly as he’d like, which is why he’d make a terrible teacher. However, this works equally in the opposite direction. His frustration can be palpable when he doesn’t understand something, and these moments are when he is least in control. A lot of his acts of protest come from anger, sure, but also the frustration of not being able to fathom how things got so bad, why they can’t just make them better now, why people can’t see it for themselves. But usually he is quiet. Unless he is invited to speak, or is so damn angry the words won’t stop, he can keep his thoughts to himself until someone is listening and his words can have an impact.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY: 

Until the age of 11 Maurice grew up in a very normal, working class family in the midlands. His mother was a typical housewife, loving but somewhat distracted, staring out of windows whilst doing the washing up, leaving the dinner in slightly too long when listening to the radio. Maurice didn’t mind, he barely noticed, and she was excellent at bedtime stories, so what was there to complain about? His father was a miner, a tough, but humorous man. He worked hard, and he always came home dirty, but played football with them in the garden the weekends.

He has one older brother. Not the brightest bulb, but the kindest person Maurice knows. Maurice always thought him brave, in a quiet way. There is no one Maurice has ever looked up to quite like his big brother, even if they squabbled and scrapped as much as any other loving siblings.

Perhaps this happy set up, along with glowing school reports and a nice bunch of friends, was why he has always resented being ripped from that life and that path. 

When he was a child, he dreamed of being an astronaut, an archaeologist, a doctor, a lawyer, and what’s more, none of these were stretches for him, with his brain and desire for learning, he could have done it, he could have gotten out of the rows and rows of back to back terraced houses that he and his family were confined to. He could have taken them with him. But he was torn away and sent to Hogwarts, and his parents only vaguely understood, were proud, but in a distant way. His brother became a milkman, a job he enjoyed, but not one that paid well. He married young, his school sweetheart, and they are expecting their first child. They all seem happy enough, they have the things that matter, enough food to eat, a roof over their head, love, but Maurice can’t help but feel he could have saved them. The terror of living paycheck to paycheck, the mundanity of their terraced hells, or just never being able to treat yourself to that little bit extra. He remembered as a child, when his father would be on strike, the unspoken fear that filled up their home. He had wanted to save them from that.

When he would return home for the summer, he would act like nothing had changed, he wouldn’t speak of Hogwarts, or of his magic. He would pretend like he was no different from them, but something had changed and something had broken, and eventually he realised that something couldn’t be fixed. Getting his Hogwarts letter had been the beginning of the end for Maurice. He hated it when summer would end and he’d have to go back, but he also hated going home in the first place.

OCCUPATION: 

Maurice works as a sound engineer at the Wizarding Wireless Network. It was not something he expected of himself, more something he fell into. A job at the Ministry would have gone against all his principals. A deep hatred for ‘the man’ but also the wizarding world in general, he wasn’t about to go work in a place trying to keep it all ticking over, and bore himself to death in the process.

He considered more academic positions, but he’d had a hard enough time concentrating at Hogwarts. Trawling magical forests for new flora and fauna, or raiding tombs and breaking their curses had no appeal to him. Which largely left working class positions or the arts. It was not a tricky decision.

The newspaper was an option, but the fact that the Daily Prophet seemed to have a monopoly on journalism in wizarding Britain didn’t sit well with Maurice. Without another widely available newspaper to oppose their horribly biased reporting, what was the point? He would not be a puppet for their propaganda. For a while, he tried to write his own pieces, publish them independently, but that wasn’t entirely successful. The pieces were convoluted, preachy, and he had no audience, no one to either agree nor criticise him.

Eventually he wound up at the Wizarding Wireless Network. Again, it irked him that there was only one major company broadcasting, but at least they had a bit more variation, and whilst they did broadcast the news, the purpose leaned towards entertainment. It’s not a cause Maurice is particularly passionate for, but it’s not one he opposes.

As a sound engineer, he’s around for recordings and broadcasts, cleans up pre recorded audio, fixes equipment, just whatever needs doing that seems like it fit within his job title. Most of it he learned on the job, but it was fascinating enough to capture his attention, and similar enough to muggle radio not to infuriate him. It also introduced him to the world of pirate radio.

About 2 years after he started at WWN, his friend and mentor quit, and in his last few days, confided in Maurice that he was leaving to start his own show. Technically WWN was the only official broadcaster on wizarding radios, but if you knew how to get a frequency, you could broadcast whatever you liked. He and some friends were setting up a station out of someone’s garage, mostly to play the music the WWN spurned.

The idea lit a flame in Maurice. Of course, the fact that it was ever so slightly against the rules, and possibly the law, made it exciting. But the idea of broadcasting whatever he liked, even if there was no one listening, putting something out there, finite and unique.

So that’s what he does with his evenings at the weekends, he broadcasts late into the night and the early mornings. The Order gives him a focus, not just long rambling opinion pieces that sounds like the inner thoughts of a paranoid conspiracy theorist. He has found a purpose now. His show, it helps spread news, it helps spread information, it helps spread hope. Of course there is the tricky business of making sure the wrong ears don’t hear it, but he’s a smart guy, there’s a way around everything.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER: 

Maurice joined the Order with best friend, Daisy Hookum. He was at the same Squib’s Rights March, right in the middle of the rioting, and landed square in the Order’s gaze because of it.

Maurice has always been an activist, even before graduating Hogwarts, he would hold small demonstrations, conquering whatever stage fright he might have for the greater good. Standing up on tables at breakfast to make impassioned speeches, chaining himself to statues and refusing to go to class, he even came very close to slashing a painting once before the painting’s occupant managed to talk him out of it.

Maurice has taken a lot of inspiration from muggle strikes and demonstration techniques. He remembers picket lines from his childhood, and grew up with the punk movement. He even had a bright red mohawk once before Daisy told him it really didn’t suit him.

These energies are what he hoped to bring to the Order. He recognises that Voldemort and the Death Eaters are the main enemy, but in his eyes, the Ministry are accomplices, and he feels just as violently about them. The Death Eaters may be the ones directly killing people, but the Ministry are letting them do it, even helping them to a certain degree. The fact that so many squeaky clean Ministry employees come to the Order to ‘do their part’ indicates to him, that there are just as many who are going over to Voldemort for the same reason. He wishes more of their actions were against the Ministry directly, but he can also do that in his own time.

Day to day, Maurice is generally a pretty good foot soldier, he isn’t crazy about the actual violence part, but he’ll do it if he has to. He’d like a louder voice at the table, but he knows how these things work, and he knows too many cooks spoil the broth. The fact that they are organised is enough for him. There is a system, and if he ever feels he needs to take something to the top, then he knows how to do that.

He has also brought his pirate radio platform to the Order. It’s a good way to spread news to people such as those being helped by the dissendium task force, and a good way to organise large groups of people. And also quite simply, it can raise spirits. Assuming that people tune in to listen. Maurice doesn’t think it’s quite being used to its full potential, but it’s getting there. The Order function on secrecy, whereas Maurice wants to inform the masses. There is clearly a conflict of interest. 

(I see this radio show as being very similar to the Potterwatch of the second wizarding war, and if it isn’t quite at that structure yet, then building it up to that during the game.)

I think although he is happy to fight with the Order, and be on the front line of the fight against You-Know-Who, his main motives are doing something about the International Statute of Secrecy, even if he is a little distracted by other things and other causes, it all really comes back to him having the choice to fight, to flee, to live his life where he pleases, taking the elements of both cultures and combining them. And he wants that choice for others as well. A lot of his anger and frustration is on a very personal selfish level, but he does recognise that he’s fighting this cause for people other than himself.

SURVIVAL: 

Being both muggleborn and publicly vocal in his opinions, does put a bit of a target on Maurice’s back. He’s had a few close scrapes in the past, but luckily that’s as much as they were. Making enemies with a lot of purebloods perhaps isn’t the most efficient way to survive this war. He doesn’t move around a lot, thankfully he’s never been traced to his home address and he wants to keep it that way. He rents a little place in Muggle London, clean and comfortable enough, but out of the way and non-descript. He wards it heavily, and takes great lengths to make sure he isn’t followed home.

He isn’t too bad at dueling, but it isn’t his greatest strength. Mostly he relies on quick thinking rather than brute strength. And paranoia. He’s seen what the other side is capable of, and he’s heard enough of Moody’s lecture like speeches to know how to watch his back.

Still, he can lay awake many nights, realising there that if he continues to fight like this, there is a large chance he won’t survive the war. Is it worth it? He usually falls asleep before reaching a conclusive answer. Needless to say, as a 24 year old, he is terrified of dying. He is just also too angry to let that stop him.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Daisy Hookum: Friends since first year, he and Daisy have a special bond. There are very few people who know him as closely as Daisy knows him. Even his family, who he loves dearly, can’t understand him the way Daisy does. They may have been brought together by class timetables and group projects, but what bonded them was their shared views of the world. Particularly as they got older, they could talk for hours and hours about their politics. They didn’t always agree on every point, but respected each other enough to hear the other out. Of course this wasn’t the only thing that kept them friends. They could have fun together, let loose, forget for a little while that things were so bad, forget how angry they were.

They joined the Order together, as they did so much together. But then Daisy left for her year in the muggle world. Since then the relationship has been strained. He understood better than most what she was trying to do, but the reality is still that he felt abandoned, and jealous, that she could go off and live her ‘muggle’ life. It’s become obvious since her return that Maurice’s idea of activism is now split from hers. She wants to take a more passive role, and Maurice couldn’t bear that.

Caradoc Dearborn: Caradoc is someone Maurice begrudgingly looks up to. On the one hand he is everything he despises, wealthy and pure blooded. But the way he conducts himself is something that Maurice admires. He can’t help but want to be in Caradoc’s good books. If he had an issue within the Order, he would most likely take it to Caradoc.

Mary MacDonald: Mary is a more recent friend. They were a few years apart at Hogwarts and so only got to know each other after they both joined the Order. A lot of Mary’s politics match up with Maurice’s, and apart from that they are very compatible on a personal level. She is one of the lucky few Maurice has let in. Of course it helps that she is muggle-born as well, he feels that with so few of them inside the Order, they really have to stick together.

He has never been the most social of people. It is not that he doesn’t enjoy company, more that he doesn’t settle. If he is going to spend time with someone, properly invest in them, he wants to be sure they are the right person. He does not do this consciously you understand, but he is constantly assessing and reassessing the people in his life. First impressions, as he’s found, are often misleading, but that doesn’t mean doesn’t heed them. He’s more inclined to search out the red flags than give someone the benefit of the doubt. The people who slip through the cracks however, get the best of him. The warmth, the wit, everything he’s been desperately been bottling up waiting for the right vessel to pour it into.

Generally, Maurice is going to feel some animosity for the richer, pure blooded members of the order, but he’ll tolerate them. He’s also going to be fairly uninterested in those who aren’t as active in the cause, or any cause for that matter. So maybe he’s made a few enemies within the Order, or at least brushed some people the wrong way. Or perhaps he’s been pleasantly surprised by others.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: No ships or antiships, I’m really open to anything. I do see Maurice as gay, so I think relationships with women would be unlikely, but I’m a sucker for some unrequited love plots, or maybe some confused one night stands. Basically anything is on the table.

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Well Maurice is a white male, so let’s start with that. I don’t think feminism is high up on his rank of causes, or racism, simply because I don’t think it’s played a huge role within his personal life experience. He probably doesn’t even realise a lot of the privileges he has as a white man.

He’s also gay, and whilst he is quite unapologetic about that, his sexuality seemed to be more of an issue in his muggle life than in the wizarding world, so it isn’t something he feels the need to fight about all the time. Again there are more important causes right now.

As a person who grew up in a working class family, he generally just resents the wealthy, and he won’t give them much chance to prove themselves to him either. This definitely stems from growing up poor, but perhaps if he’d been able to make his own fortune and save his family from their poverty, then he wouldn’t feel as strongly. In that sense it’s quite hypocritical. Now it’s also tied to the fact that the wealthy are the ones in control, both in the Death Eaters and their reign of terror, and at the Ministry, making and enforcing the laws that keep them all trapped and helpless. It hasn’t missed his attention that most of the wealthier wizards are pureblooded, so he’ll often lump them in with his disdain.

This works the other way as well. He’s willing to overlook a lot of shit that his working class/muggle born acquaintances get up to, forgive a lot of their sins. I don’t think he realises he does this, but it certainly happens.

He doesn’t necessarily hate the people who work for the Ministry, even if he has a dislike for the establishment and the way it’s run. He understands everyone has to work, and most don’t get the privilege of doing something they like or agree with entirely. There is a bit of time though where he’ll figure out their motives before he really trusts or likes them.

Law enforcement isn’t particularly in his good books either, but that is perhaps more linked to his view of how muggle police act towards protests and demonstrations.

When it comes to the issues of half-breeds, he’ll go along to the marches, he’ll sign the petitions, he’s probably up to date on all the latest views and opinions, but again, it’s not at the top of his priorities.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? You already know I love this roleplay. I’m looking forward to being more active hopefully, interacting with a wider range of characters, playing someone who is quite different to Fab as well and stretching those writing muscles.

PLOT DROP IDEAS: 

I would love to see his pirate radio show have an effect somehow, either positive or negative (but maybe more positive at least at first, I’ve already done a lot of disappointing the Order with Fab).

I would love to see how his bloodstatus affects him. If he is genuinely more in danger for being a loud annoying muggleborn, it might be nice to work that into the larger plot somehow.

ANYTHING ELSE? I haven’t put whether he’s low level or mid level in the Order, I’m happy for either, wherever you think he’d fit best.

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS:

PAST: 

Maurice Creevey grew up in the midlands, part of a typical working class family. His mother was a housewife, and his father a Miner. The strikes and picket lines his father was a part of were some of his first experiences with activism, and the spark didn’t stop there. Maurice was rudely torn from his happy muggle life by the revelation he was a Wizard and the letter ‘inviting’ him to study at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. With no choice but to follow this path, Maurice has resented it ever since. He didn’t waste his time there by any means though. This was when he got his first taste for activism, protesting in the great hall and demonstrating in classes. These habits followed him faithfully into adulthood, developing until he found real urgent causes. At the top of his list, was tearing down the Statue of Secrecy that traps all muggle-borns in the wizarding world whilst an evil wizard and his cronies are attempting to pick them off one by one, and also prevents the muggles from fighting back on their own terms.

PRESENT:

It’s his activism that brought him to the attention of the Order. He is a good soldier for the Order, willing to do what has to be done and follow orders dutifully. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own intentions. Maurice works for the Wizarding Wireless Network, and a few nights a week he hosts his own pirate radio station. Sometimes his broadcasts can get hundreds or thousands of listeners, all scared but hopeful, wanting to hear what no-one else is telling them, the news the papers won’t print, the the stories the WWN won’t air. The Order value their secrecy, but Maurice knows information is power, and knowledge gives you a choice. He knows he can use his show to the Order’s advantage if only it’s given a chance.

FC CHOICES: top choice is Tom Sturridge, I’m not very good at fcs so if you don’t think he fits I’m happy to go with recommendations!

[soldierwatch]

i'm about a day into the new year and even tho it's not thanksgiving i've got a few things to be thankful for - i.e. you! you've brought me so much happiness and love in the short time i've known you, and i'm so so glad we followed each other in the first place. your writing is phenomenal and yet it doesn't hold a candle to you as a person, and i'm so grateful to be able to say i know you going into 2020. here's to the new year, and thanks for 2019. // @mekabound​

okay anna , my emotions are out of wack on the regular , but this just amped everything up for the positive--- i can’t sort my thoughts well enough to offer a coherent response, one that expresses to what extent i’m grateful for this message, so just---to sum it up as best i can without allowing myself to get muddled, i’ll keep it concise yet sincere : i love you . ;0; you have been such a wonderful addition to my life , genuinely , & i am honored to have met you & furthermore to have you as a friend.

you are such a bundle of sunshine, witty & sweet, & i adore you.  you’re creative as hell & talented to impressive degrees, hitting points with your characterizations that i wouldn’t have even CONSIDERED until you brought them to attention ;; our muses mesh well, we do ourselves, & i’m just. so glad to have you. ;w; i love u !! here’s to 2020, & many more years beyond. ♥♥♥

[eden-rosebct]

Circa Solar - realign with the nature of time

For emerging practices we were encouraged to look at a technological kick starter of our choice and identify our personal positions, the practice of it within the creative arts and industries, Articulate propositions and highlight alternative and future directions of the said artefact within the said industry. 

Circa Solar. On my initial encounter with Circa Solar, it looked like a fun approach to the concept of time. It sells itself as an alternative clock, based around “the nature of time”. I thought this was an interesting and certainly an aesthetically engaging concept. From a shallow perspective, the whole article on Kickstarter was well-curated, colour coordinated, flashy, clean and had a lot of information from the artefact itself to the philosophy behind it. 

It was my pretentious side that grasped to this idea that “I don’t need numbers for the time, this is way cooler” or “This is more natural for my body rhythms” and other naive thoughts. And the more I read the more caught out I was about how clingy it was. 

We depend on time telling for everything in our culture, it is the main structure of our society. We do everything based around time. The stance they were taking, however, was to change the view of time into the visual concept rather than numerical. 

First, look

The contemporary aesthetic included a lot of cohesive colour work in a bright sunlight yellow, contrasting this with a black and grey accent. This theme was used on all imagery, from photography, design and film. It was obvious they wanted an overall impactful “look” for this product. It did make it look professional and well organised, though when I watched the video I was introduced to the concept with a robotic voice over. It was well informed and to the point and used big words to further drive the importance of their research behind the project. It was clearly a persuasive approach into convincing us that our current reading of time was potentially a “toxic delusion”. 

Though I understood the language they were using, it was a language that would be considered more academic than marketable in my opinion. Their language usage was also concise but ultimately intimidating. It came across as existential and conceptual, rather than whimsical, which I think is a loss, they take themselves too seriously so me to take them seriously.  

They believe this is the solution to the additive “short term thinking” that our current culture is subject to. Using sentences like “if you choose to support solar in this critical moment in time” and overall sense of urgency, the language indicates that their main goal is to enter a new chapter of telling time. I think though, to me, it sounded pretentious. The words and overall approach seemed like an overpromising application. It seemed like they were building up this huge influential project and it would change the world. I was just waiting for a “and much, much more” sentence. 

They separated their explanation from its most simplistic approach to its most complex. I did feel this was effective and worked well for the average viewer, it allowed you to see as little or as much as you want. Chapters are as follows… 

Circa Solar in a sentence 

Circa Solar in a paragraph 

Circa Solar prototype 

Circa Solar in a Story 

Nature of Time 

Nature of being

Toxic Delusions 

Radical Coexistence 

Furthermore risks etc. 

What don’t they say is that this will replace time altogether, but it does seem to have a negative look on the current way of telling time, where that be analog or digital, as far as I know, this is all numerical based rather than visual sundial style. I think there is. the reason why we as people in society graduated from the sundial approach to telling time, to a numerical approach. They also don’t seem to mention anything about sundials and how they were a mix of numerical and visual time telling value. They also seem to compare humans to plant life and the “natural” cycle of light. Funny enough, we aren’t plants, we are people. Time to me at this point is a necessary and essential part of society these days, and it is that way for a reason, which I plan to further investigate. Text, Labels Signs are extremely well curated, it looked like everything was perfectly made to empower their message. It also looks like everything is completely staged and based on theory, rather than practice. I would have loved to see someone use their form of time telling for a week. As I think the biggest concern for people would be being late to things. I know that would certainly concern me. 

((photo))

They had a lot of visual features including, imagery, photography, gifs and video. This was mainly used to show their movement of time. 

Things I would note on.

-Didn’t show a human interactive experience, even the voice over was obviously robotic. 

-Going backwards not forwards to me

-seems to be more aesthetically based than practical 

-would be cool if it was added to current time telling, with out the numbers it reminds of me of “island time” or “meet me at noon”. Doesn’t work in an urban sense and creates timeliness risk. 

The artefact itself

The artefact itself looks like a typical watch or phone app. With a basic monochromatic shading. The hand of the clock still moves around the circle, however, the sunrise and sunset elements are emphasised with the dark to light shading. There are dots around the screen where the hand can point to, however, I think it is still confusing to read as you can’t tell exactly what time sunrise is. For example, 6 is normally where the 3 hands would be, they have changed around the structure of what area of the clock means what time. 

The way it works is below. 

Similar products

David Beren and Jay Alba (2019)m Life wire: The 10 Best Wake-Up Light Therapy Alarm Clocks of 2019https://www.lifewire.com/best-light-therapy-alarm-clocks-4137028

Sunlight Clock Free 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sunlight-clock-free/id319009777

Day & Night map

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/day-night-map/id741375889

Sunrise Sunset Lite

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sunrise-sunset-lite/id321324581

Daylight Clock

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daylight-clock/id822702909

Daylight one

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daylight-one/id995040350

SolarWatch Daylight & Weather

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/solarwatch-daylight-weather/id1191365122

Sol: Sun Clock 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sol-sun-clock/id491537291

Sundial - Solar & Lunar Times

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sundial-solar-lunar-times/id976460540

Daylight

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daylight/id324528814

Sunny Side Up – Sunrise to sunset, the measures time and robotics

komorebi – Platform for generative sunlight and shadow

https://www.creativeapplications.net/processing/komorebi-platform-for-generative-sunlight-and-shadow/

SUN – Sun’s cycle as an interactive (playful) experience

https://www.creativeapplications.net/js/three-js/sun-suns-cycle-as-an-interactive-playful-experience/

To investigate their concept more I wanted to go back to how time telling came about, which I would assume is by the sun rise and sun set. This was further confirmed for me with a video A brief history of time (keeping). Stephan Hawking also has books on a briefer history of time, even briefer history of time. I did not have time to read his books, but this video seems to sum it up pretty well. For a lot of our lives in the early days, sun and seasons were all the time keeping we ever needed, however with the development of civilisation people needed schedules. 

Egyptians made clocks using shadows and split the day into 12 hours depending on where the shadow lay, this can be referred to a sundial. This concept is increasingly similar to how this watch proposes to operate, using the “shadows” and visual representation of time. I can't help to think, is this not just going backwards? Or maybe that's the point? It’s not exactly a wildly new concept, but maybe it's new in regards to how we live now, and new in the way it reinterprets the past. For nighttime they would 12 of their favourite constellations rise. 12 because Egyptians preferred duodecimal numbers to match lunar or funny enough the number of joints we have on each hand. It took over 3000 years of “clock” making to get to where we are today with our digital and analog clocks.

This Artefact is taking on this idea that we could re connect with the natural light cycles again, removing a minute to minute living. Reading the article again I also understand that they are not trying to change the main form of time telling, more so showing an alternative to living with time. Their purpose is to draw us back to our roots of living. Though I can understand that this would be appealing either aesthetically, or used as a form of a relaxed way to tell time, I do not think it would be practicle as the only source of Time telling and not everyone can afford to be on “island time” sort of sounds like it was made by someone who was always late.

Conclusion todo

What is the argument behind the value proposition or the future scenario?

Evaluation questions

References 

Sundials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI0GqYJha1Q.

Circa Solar - realign with the nature of time

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1289884842/circasolar?ref=discovery&term=technology%20

A Brief History Of Time(keeping) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjSwRwAqQA4.

[andrewsmotivation]

Motivational 4 Word Inspirational Quotes Short

Both well-known individuals and successful businesses have motivational 4 word inspirational quotes short and slogans that are unique to them (e.g. "Just Do It" by Nike). Every one of them makes an effort to condense their essential ideas, life philosophy, and goals for the future into a single declarative sentence. Why do people act in such a way? What makes having your entire life and style of thinking "zipped" into a single sentence so compelling? Even the best motivational speakers will ask their audience and readers to try to sum up their objectives and purposes in a single sentence at some point during their presentation. Evidently, there is some force to be found in powerful phrases and sayings which demonstrate much more than can be conveyed in so few words.

To begin, it's not hard to keep track of such simple, standalone statements. People will have a much easier time remembering their goal or vision if it is articulated in a sentence that is short and easy to understand. This is especially the case for corporations and other types of organisations. People will have a difficult time recalling lengthy and complex declarations of mission or vision. In addition, they will not make the effort to commit the information to memory. In order for employees and other stakeholders (customers, suppliers, creditors, etc.) to always be aware of where the company is headed, the direction, goals, and values of the organisation should be succinctly communicated. This is possible and should be done. despite the fact that you are rousing them in the middle of the night. Also, you've probably heard the old adage that goes something like this: "If you don't know where you're going, how can you expect to get there?"

When you are confronted with challenging circumstances, all it takes is a short period of time for you to re-energize yourself and to remind yourself of your goal and your mission. It is not necessary for you to read the entire book. It is not necessary for you to search for it in your notepad. Your mission, vision, purpose, or goal (whatever it is that you have defined for yourself) can be quickly brought to mind in a concise and straightforward phrase, which has the potential to urge you to move on. If it is brief, it will only take a few moments for it to be recalled from your memory, and it will have an immediate and good impact on both your attitude and the feelings you are experiencing.

Because of this, a slogan, motto, vision statement, or any other compelling statement needs to be condensed, concise, and easy to understand. In other words, it is condensed in order to make it accessible to you at the time when you will require it the most. When you feel the weight of life pressing down on you, your mind will look for a way to steady itself. You will be able to stand up and continue your path with the assistance of a statement that you have established for yourself that is succinct yet powerful.

Reading inspirational quotations and sayings and committing them to memory can be quite helpful, in addition to outlining your own purpose, goals, values, or vision of life in a single sentence. 4 word short famous quotes can be concise statements that convey a great deal of power due to the fact that they are much more than just words; rather, they carry the experiences of real people. It is beneficial to read them frequently and commit them to memory since they are simple to recall, and it has been demonstrated that they are an excellent source of motivation.

Here are several examples:

"You gotta keep on keepin' on." Joe Dirt

"Never retreat. Never attempt to explain. Get it done, and then listen to them scream." Benjamin Jowett

"What I preach is how I live my life." Mahatma Gandhi

"The man who is still alive has a chance," said the doctor. Lebanese proverb

Imagine that when life gets tough, you'll be able to quickly recall some of these statements since you've committed them to memory ahead of time. They are brief and uncomplicated, but they pack a powerful punch in terms of their ability to motivate and inspire.

[porchwood]

♡ THG Reread, Week Six: Fandom Swag

As I am not a Lionsgate fan, my fandom swag is a little…different. :)

While When the Moon is a massive part of my life, I’ve tried not to make this post too WtM-centric, though the influence is certainly apparent even in these few select pics, in which we have: 

1. My “Katniss” Funko - actually, the Snow White Funko from Once Upon a Time, but when I saw her in the store she looked so much more like Katniss than any of the movie!Katniss Funkos - she even has a little “rabbit-skin” muffler (which is from the WtMiverse and Peeta’s to boot, but still!) - that I had to take her home. I mean, she’s got long black hair (with teeny little side-braids!), hunting boots, a bow with an arrow at the string - and she’s at least one shade darker than -

2. The Lionsgate Peeta Funko, for whom I ultimately caved, in part to give fierce, lonely little Katniss her helpmate but also because he’s more consistently blonde than Josh!Peeta and he has the spear (for WtMiverse purposes :D). By the bye, Katniss is only taller than him here because she’s anchored on a base - her teeny-tiny feet can’t free-stand!

3. My “Mr. Everdeen” Funko - and yes, he’s the Bodhi Rook Funko from Rogue One. :D My roommate and I both love Bodhi and Funko finally made a special, after-the-fact POP for him, which she bought me as a surprise. I was going to keep him in the box but the more I looked at him, the more I realized he’d make an awesome Jack Everdeen (tell me his little flight suit and goggles couldn’t be mining gear if you squint!). So now he’s looking out for his little girl in -

4. My When the Mooniverse tableau. This is by no means the sum total of WtMesque stuff I own (lol!!) - this is just the “concise” display. ;) There’s a Father Christmas (with real rabbit-skin trim on his robe!), several white bears, a doe and a fawn, foxes, and a sleigh, just to name a few things. The little cabin behind Peeta was made by @ghtlovesthg, who also gave me the glass mourning dove, @reylo-the-jedi crocheted the blue-eyed white bear (with a “prosthetic” hind paw!) and gave me the teeny white bear and the red handkerchief as well, and @findingxeno sent me the teeny-tiny fox and deer figurines. ♡ (And the feather lying in front of Jack and Katniss was a present from a real mourning dove, just this past week! She was sitting in the driveway as Lucky and I were coming back from a walk and she waited till we were quite close before flying away and leaving us one perfect feather! ♡)

P.S. The Krennic Funko does correlate with someone in the WtMiverse (and no, he’s not my fancast President Snow!), but it’s somewhat spoilery at present… And yes, the tableau currently resides atop my bookshelf of fairy tales. Peeta, the isbjørn, and the cabin sit atop my stack of retellings of “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” and the Katie Thamer-illustrated The Song of Songs, Which is Solomon’s... For, y’know, no reason in particular. :D

On a sidenote: I have a wishlist of additional “fancast” Funkos that I want to get someday for my WtM tableau. As/if I manage to pick them up, I’ll add them to the display and post pics. :)

5. A few Christmases ago Target had these awesome little doll ornaments and I found a pair that look just like a festive wintertime Katniss and Prim. :) They’re usually displayed with their respective bear-princes (see Photo #4), but I was trying to keep this post small and focused. ;)

6-7. My friendship with Shannon of False Nostalgia - Shiny Scents & Sundries began shortly after I finished reading MJ and started seeking out fandom stuff on Etsy - here particularly, handcrafted fragrances. The jar labeled “Real or Not Real” contains the priceless dregs of a Peeta-scented candle (notes of bread and dandelions! ♡ I don’t think she makes these any longer so I’ve been rationing it over the past six years), and the little tins in the next pic are solid perfumes. The Katniss scent was ultimately relabeled “The Mockingjay” and has lovely earth-and-leather notes (I had to dab some on after taking the picture - I haven’t worn it in so long and it’s heavenly!), and Hey Catnip is woodsmoke and toasted marshmallow, I believe (I love woodsmoke scents and opted to give it a try, in spite of the Gale ;D). 

Shortly after discovering the magic workshop that is False Nostalgia, I threw a Hunger Games bachelorette party for a friend (I may be making a post about that later - lots of silliness and fangirling and no classic “bachelorette party” stuff whatsoever) and Shannon made a fabulous batch of customized goody bags for the attendees - oh, and did I mention? She created a fragrance called Tribute Train, based on my latte creation of the same name (rich hot chocolate + honey, spices, and toast! ♡), that I believe she still sells in a soap. Her shop is on vacation at the moment so I can’t tell you how many of these scents are currently available, alas, but they’re absolutely as awesome as you would imagine. Go favorite her shop - you won’t regret it!

8. While shopping for the aforementioned Hunger Games bachelorette party, I discovered that Bad Bitch Cosmetics had a Hunger Games line so I had to order little samples for all of the attendees. :D Unfortunately, these are no longer available (possibly for the same reason as our next item :/), but you’re more than welcome to borrow mine if you like!

9-10. No bridal party is complete without flowers, and in my bachelorette planning I was over the moon to learn that Greencycledesigns carried paper flowers made from repurposed copies of THG. I ordered a set of five (one each for the bride, we three bridesmaids, and my sister, who helped host the party) and made sure to keep an awesome one for myself (Peeta’s reaping and the bread scene flashback!). :) But the sad end of this story is that a year or so ago, I went back to Greencycle to buy another round of THG flowers, this time for a good fandom friend, but they were nowhere to be found. So I sent the shop owner a message and learned that she got a C&D notice from Lionsgate, telling her not to make flowers with “their” books anymore. (I don’t even know where to start with that!) Which I guess makes this last item a particular rarity! :(

I’m sure as soon as I post this I’ll think of something I missed! What’s in your fandom swag collection? 

[musicmixtapes]

August 15th, 2018 Mix

Happy Thursday! I hope you enjoy this mix, I had a lot of fun curating a wide variety of songs that span over several different genres. Spotify Mix 1. Changes by Langhorne Slim - This songs moving acoustic sound and light hearted sound really correlates with the meaning behind it, the flowing feeling of life changing and the confusion of stepping into a new phase of life and being in the dark, but being ready for it at the same time. I think that this song really emotes the way that people grow apart during important shifts in life and how there is both beauty and sadness in this, it can be viewed as both because it represents growth and maturity. 2. Peach Scone by Hobo Johnson - Quite possibly the weirdest mix of musical genres in a song that is very strange but so much fun to listen to and very easy to sing along to also. Johnson combined a conversational spoken poetry and letter style message to someone he is in love with unrequitedly and adds a really cool guitar rhythm and beat to the back to turn it to a funny song. It makes you think about a first love or crush that you've had and for some reason can't let go of. I definitely never thought I would be into a song like this but the easy going vibe to it and the reoccurrence of the "maybe it's the thought of not being so alone" adds such a powerful to the center of the song. 3. The Record Player Song by Daisy the Great - The harmonies in this song immediately attracted me to this niche little artsy indie song that describes the ways that girls with a certain aesthetic try to portray themselves as being elusive and musically inclined, but in all reality are just misunderstood and a little self centered who don't really understand themselves. I think its so important that there is a song that pretty much outlines the "manic pixie dream girl" trope while validating that there is an issue with categorizing girls into one big lump even though they too are confused with their identity. 4. I Can't Tell What The Time Is Telling Me by And The Kids - I was so surprised to discover this perfect blend of rock and pop and that it was a sound that wasn't overplayed at all, mostly because, well, this band is pretty low key on the alternative rock scene. The musicians' proficiency is equivalent to the song's meaning which is always really cool to see with young bands. The essence of the song combines a person searching for deeper meaning with the current generation and the problems that lie within it concerning poverty and the epidemic sweeping the country; but it also talks about caring about someone while being unsure if they reciprocate feelings, smaller topics embedded within a bigger issue. 5. Bad Girls by M.I.A - This was a fun choice for me because I am in love with the show "The Mindy Project" and this song reoccurs in several of the episode when the main character, Mindy, is going to work and doing something that exemplifies strong female power, which we always love to see. I think that MIA the artist always adds a badass female persona to her music and opens up the possibility that not just male hip hop artists can be badass and have that gangsta style in their music. The beat along with the synth sounds is really catchy and great to pump up a night or a morning workout. 6. Art School Wannabe by Sorority Noise - I think the title basically sums up what the song is all about: basically the trope of having a tortured artist life and having to realize that maybe suffering doesn't always have to occur as much as artists think it needs to in order to create "good" art. I like the fact that a post punk garage rock band can laugh at their own perceived artist persona and that maybe life is a combination of highs and lows and the happiness can be portrayed within music too and can make enjoyable content as well. From a review of the song, a critic compared the song to the expression, "You can wear black on the outside and still be happy on the inside" which describes it quite well. 7. Hannah Hunt (cover) by I'm With Her - I am pretty sure I included the original song by Vampire Weekend in a past music mixtape, but my mom played this version in the car one day last week and I completely fell for this one. Something about the female take on this male to female love song made me think of it in a completely new light and the use of the mandolin and violin as well as the acoustic guitar completely transformed the song from a "feels" indie slow song to a folky indie song that breathes new life into it. The mandolin solo in the middle of the song combined with the violin solo made me feel l was kind of in the middle of an empty field listening to it. 8. This Is The Last Time by The National - Completely not acoustic or uplifting, in comparison this song is all about something ending and not wanting it to, but knowing it needs to because it is unhealthy and addictive. The National has come to my attention more and more recently because of their ability to include so many pieces of a band and make such simple sound at the same time, with such precise musical technicality. Berninger is such a proficient songwriter and is able to put a name and metaphor to feelings about relationships that us mere mortals are not always able to do. I think it's interesting that he has said in the past that he is very influenced by the writings of great poet Walt Whitman, as his influence is very clear in The National's song lyrics. 9. Table For One by AWOLNATION - This song comes from AWOLNATION's most recent album that was released a few months ago called "Here Come The Runts" which includes a lot of rock heavy ballads with very different storylines all centering around feeling like the smallest person in a group and being an underdog all the time, which I think is very relatable to a large demographic. I liked this song in particular because of the large swell of the chorus and it's sound shift in comparison to the very chill verses. The song's meaning is not that hard to understand from just listening to it once or twice, being that a summer love occurred and now one half of the equation is done with it, leaving the speaker at a "table for one". 10. Lady Grinning Soul by David Bowie - This romantically styled piano ballad is the last track off of Bowie's iconic album from his persona's Aladdin Sane perspective, which is a lot of people's favorite and has since then turned into kind of a cult classic in terms of music. The title, of all things, perplexed me the most and upon further inspection I discovered that a "lady grinning soul" refers to the feminine characteristics of a man's persona, which is so modern and ground breaking, especially for 1973 when this song was released. Bowie often talks about having a fantastical and idealized romantic obsession with people which didn't always pan out to be releastic, which totally correlates to the eclectic sounds of his music. 11. The Little Things That Give You Away by U2 - Taken from a commenter on Genius Lyrics this song is about: "Bono surviving an accident; a car accident it seems. He’s leaving clues all along the album about “a near death experience” that he has stated having no much long ago." This made me definitely think about the song in a different light and added much more depth to it for me. It has a classic U2 original sound that only the voice of Bono can give to a song, especially the deep writing that is focused in on a specific experience but can translate to much bigger world issues at hand, in this instance, communication and the trouble with people not being able to speak to each other normally. 12. Smoke Signals by Phoebe Bridgers - I could totally see this song being written as a poem first, being primarily that it follows like a storyline entirely and tells about a person reaching out constantly to the speaker in several ways in metaphor of a smoke signal on a beach. Bridgers voice is so soft and beautiful and makes you lean into the meaning of the song and listen carefully to every word there. I'd also like to point out the main use just of the bass guitar, a very quite additional guitar and the swell of string group that swells during the chorus which adds a very cinematic experience to the listener. She later revealed in an interview that this song was written to an ex lover and about their relationship and the complexities of it which is very heartfelt and personal. 13. Wes Anderson by Alex Lahey - Titled as the iconic director of our time who comes out with quirky adventure and life stories, Lahey created her one Andersonian love story within this song and brings us through a journey of her own with someone and the small things that one does with a lover can be the most special just because it's with that person who is held to such a high importance in our live's at the time. This song is just very simply written and laid out, not having to figure out that much to enjoy it because it's clear and concise about being a love song and it doesn't need to do anything more than that to be good and appreciated. 14. Big Sis by SALES - Very much reminded me of the beginning of Sonia Richardson's "Ruin Your Night" except instead of swelling and becoming a rock song, it was content with remaining a bedroom pop/dream pop style of song which I really liked hearing. I think the meaning behind the song can head in a few different directions but I heard it as being with someone who isn't content with themselves because they are trying too hard to be like someone else, most like their "big sis" which is well understood due to the repetition of that line which is pretty crucial to the song. But I think that the minimalistic style of song that is becoming popular in the indie world is really likeable. 15. Gap in the Clouds by Yellow Days - A singer and bedroom producer, artist Yellow Days came out with this song when he was only seventeen years old which is in itself impressive, but the fact that the music is so soulful and vintage sounding made me appreciate his youth behind the song even more. The artist explained about the song that, "It's about being in a depressed state for so long that your sky is full of clouds, but then that special someone makes a gap in those clouds and they can light up your world again" which is so beautifully put because it definitely describes love's ability to influence such a diverse range of music, even from someone with so little years on the earth. 16. Two Slow Dancers by Mitski - This track was released just a few days ago and I was so excited about more new music from Mitski, an amazing artist who is coming more and more popular on the alternative scene, having toured with Lorde on and off throughout the past year and doing shows on her own as well. This song lives and breathes nostalgia and the feeling of being young and slow dancing in a school gymnasium and wanting to recreate that feeling with a new love no matter what age you are. The feeling of being the only people in the whole world while in a dinghy school dance is so special, and as older people trying to stay the same is so difficult and sad. Needless to say, Mitski got it perfect. 17. 4am by girl in red - If a song were to correlate to anxiety and the overwhelming feelings one gets while trying to fall asleep, this would surely be that song because it's exactly what it is. Another great example of a young artist who is breaking onto the bedroom indie pop scene, girl in red describes how the feeling of thinking too much can cloud judgment and create this bedtime hysteria and creating an insomnia nightmare in such a short song. Songs like this are so good to listen to in order to gain the insight that music doesn't need to be seven minutes long to give a deep meaning into someone's emotions and thoughts. 18. Feeling Whitney by Post Malone - I'm not going to lie, when my little brother first put this song on in the car, I did not expect much from it because of his pension for heavy rap music that breaks the bass stereo system, but I was completely taken aback and completely shameful at my snap judgment just because of the artist that had created this song. Malone's completely unabashed story of his drug addiction and the struggle to try to find good influences who could help him get through a hard time in his life tugged at my heart strings so hard. The really interesting chord progressions totally impressed me along with his super folk inspired voice which rivals sounds that come from The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons. I would like to hear more of this from him for sure. 19. Someone Great by LCD Soundsystem - At first, I was convinced this song was about losing someone that the speaker was in love with but didn't appreciate fully and now wasn't able to talk to. In fact, it definitely could be perceived as a multifaceted song in terms of meaning, pertaining to losing someone and how everything that happens in life is colored gray by the loss of that person because it can't be shared with that person anymore. Upon research and reading I found out that this is actually about the death of James Murphy's therapist of all people, and then all of the details of the song really clicked into place for me and reached new levels of love for this track. I think it's so important to write about losing people that aren't just family members or loved ones, maybe just people you grow to care for platonically or professionally. 20. Los Ageless by St. Vincent - I have featured St. Vincent many times on my mixes by now because she deserves that and more at all times in her musical career. I believe that she has released this track as a single recently, as I have heard it a couple times on the radio recently and it has become one of my favorite car bops to dance in my seat to and then realize that the person in the car next to me is looking at me singing and dancing in the car. But although it is very much a dance electronic song, it still goes to the regular depths of meaning that all of St. Vincent's songs have, as it's about the complete juxtaposition from her other favorite city to talk about (New York). The you in the song can refer to losing a lover, a friend, a place, youth, fame, money, etc... I love this because the interpretation is left up to the listener. Thanks for tuning in, see you next week! Julia 

[goddamnitlady]

OOC // super long post of me talking at myself, trying to make sense of my behaviour.

I need to put this chaos of thoughts down on the page. Or else they might claw my skull open from the inside out. This text is so super personal it would fit better in my diary. This is me talking at me.

So no obligation to you to read this!!!

I realise I’m so shaken, that in the below text, I will be (re-)constructing my own narrative about myself. I’ll do that right here. 

I will use this narrative to review what I learnt about my behaviour, re-interpret my past and then frame my current social reality. If I use kinder language, perhaps I'll think kinder of myself? Gotta try that. This is my unstructured train of thought, me talking at me. If you want to read about me talking at you, scroll down.

Enjoy some nude TMI. It’s long.

INTRO - BEHAVIOUR 

Yesterday I went to A.DHD Central to get tested and maybe a diagno.sis and surprise, I have it! I saw it coming and I'm okay with this. It explains why... 

why I'm always so easily distracted

why it's almost painful to be bored

why it's almost to do difficult tasks 

why I've got social periods that can last days or month and then suddenly get asocial periods

why I forget something 3 seconds after you said it

why I can't remember more than 3 instructions

why I don't have one train of thought, but 3 or 4. And I need to jump from train to train to keep up with them.

Okay so that's that.

The OTHER thing that I cannot stop thinking about now is just as important. The old man said it very casually, like: "oh btw on such an intense diagnosis day our team of trained specialist always finds other mental difficulties people developed too. AD.HD comes with friends. We see you have (traits of) avoi.dant personality disor.der okay continuing on, your computer test showed..."

And today I'm at home. I picked up my me.ds this morning and I've started dosing. I started thinking, wait what did they say yesterday about that other thing? So I read through Wikipedia.

ME TALKING @ ME. ^That new info about my behaviour changes my interpretation of my past.   

Yesterday a professional told me that 50% of the kids with ADH.D leave primary school feeling like an outcast so it's not weird I was bullied too.

On primary school I was dia.gnosed with dyslexia and dyscalculia. It means that letters and numbers magic to me. They tremble and swap places or vanish. The classes Maths and Languages were awful to me. Biology and History were better and more fun but they also make use of numbers (dates/calculations). Art class (with my hands or brain) was the one thing I could actually do. I could do presentations and discussions as well.

But I felt different from my peers because they could learn things so EASILY compared to me. I wasn't dumb, I understood, but then the explanation was gone and I'd forgotten it again(AD.HD). So I needed lots of repetition to learn. And then once I understood it the letters/numbers kept moving without my consent! (dyslexia/dyscalucia) Stupid letters/numbers.

I moved houses and thus switched schools. On the new school became bullied by being socially exluded, ignored, and critisized.

That bullying made me feel like I could be 'attacked' in class all the time. In hindsight I was sensitive to stimuli. Everyone has a filter on their mind that ignores certain things (like the fact you are breathing. congratulations, you are now aware that you are breathing) and lets other things through (such as the honk of a car when you're jaywalking). Child!me must have been working super hard to 

pay attention to class 

filter stimuli 

categorise high-speed which stimuli are hostile 

muffle intense emotional reactions 

consider which version of reply would create least conflict/emotion 

A lack of sleep (from reading books until late) make me sleepy during the day thus less sensitive to (negative) stimuli. 

So I became from age 10 onward very much an outcast/ anxious/ nervous/ shy/ avoidant-of-confrontations-where-I-could-be-rejected. 

I was bullied on secondary school too. Jackpot.

I worked harder than average but my grades were lower than average. I felt inadequate. Inferior. My self reflection went into overdrive. I started to think things like... if I can't do maths or language and don't like people, what sort of career could I do? What value did I have to humanity?  Was I not just taking up resources? I felt guilt and shame that my parents had to waste(!) money on me. No economic equation could justify having me around. I was a useless human being. My only good trait is that I'm kind to people, showing kindness always -- even if they don't deserve it. Because I know what it’s like to be hurt and I don’t want to do that to anyone. 

(I feel so fucking lucky that I grew up in a loving family because holy shit teenage!me sounded like the textbook perfect victim for types of abuse.)

I worked hard in all my classes and it paid off. I went to the above-medium level of education for secondary school. Finally away from my bullies at age 15,5! I think that ended my de.pression too. I switched schools to above-medium, it was a normal period on that secondary school.  Two more years after that went fine. Made my long-term school friends and cosplay friends in that time and since. Yay!

After that, I studied graphic design on adult education medium level, then for Teacher of English As A Foreign Language on above-medium level, now I'm this(!) close to finishing Literature Studies on university (highest) level. Take that, insecurity. I'm not stupid. My specialities (creativity) just lay elsewhere than the standard measurement.

I read somewhere that AD.HD people don't have normal emotions but that one emotion TIMES TEN. So a small mention of rejecton from another person causes a feeling of REJECTION TIMES TEN in me. I can easily say that I have joy times TEN, fear times TEN, and enthusiasm times TEN too, which can make me a very charming person?

I initially thought this strong emotional fear of rejection was the AD.HD-only symptom called RSD, rejection-sensitive dys.phoria. What makes it into a personality diso.rder?

Answer: Persistent malfunctioning in society. 

ME TALKING @ ME. Re-framing my social reality and examining my behaviours.

I malfunction as follows: I experience extreme shyness in certain moments, feel anxious before or during new social situations, don't want to go to the kitchen if my housemates are there, have a fear of emailing/calling people, or approaching groups. Fear of asking money back (I feel like "I'm not worth even a euro"). I have a GIANT fear of being rejected by others. Giant fear of being ridiculed. Cast out.

This leads to a behavior pattern where I avoid conflict. I'm just too scared to do them. Critique freaks me out (because me emotions will skyrocket times ten). And it's the worst when I'm doing a project with people (such as preparing a presentation with a group/making cosplay costume with a friend/travelling home by train and someone needs to pick me up). People are the worst. I feel I always let them down.

So then anticipate on being inadequate, take longer to do it perfect, get ill from thinking up a thousand stressful could-be's, then fiiiiiinally reach out, and hear "you should have done X" or "why didn't you call me earlier?! Now I have to deal with this escalated mess!"

HOW I RESPOND TO ONLINE STIMULI

When friends send me a message online, I get scared. I ALWAYS have fear of opening them. I always think "what did I do wrong this time?" I always anticipate an attack. This is why it's good I have both friends AND other people on whatsapp. Sometimes this emotional anticipation or reaction is so strong that it can dominate my mood for hours.

Sometimes (when I'm most afraid) I open the message to get rid of the notification and don't actually read it. 

Sometimes (when I'm fearful brave) I take a deep breath and read it and take an hour to deal with the stressful emotional reaction. I want to reply but 1)I need to think of the perfect reply to type up so the negative situation will be quelled or/or followed by 2) my AD.HD forgets it.

Sometimes (when I'm happy) I can respond immediately. I'm functional!!!

Sometimes (when I'm happy) I respond immediately and them too and it's fun! And I have a blast! Wow, talking to friends is so much fun!!! I'm charming. I'm fast. I'm celebrating.

Nowadays I have a lot of friends. At least twenty five! They're divided into four groups: hometown, student life, online, cosplay. These are "friends without obligation" MEANING that my presence is a addition and not a requirement. They will never guilt me for cancelling on them. We can only hang out once a year and have a blast without talking at all during the rest of the year, and we will still conciser each other friends.           I consider them friends if I can message/call them up at 2 a.m. and cry about a boyfriend or needing a place to sleep. Which is a huge deal to me, me-who-feels-guilty-for-taking-up-resources.)          It don’t always function. I can hide for weeks, avoiding social contact. Then I can be super functional for weeks. Ups and downs.          I function best around friends without obligations. 

ME @ TUMBLR FRIENDS.

I suppose I want my tumblr friends to know that...

I 'squish' on a person. I use the word here in the meaning of 'plantonic crushing' and 'wanting to have an emotional bond with them as friend'. I sometimes stalk/bombard a person with messages/like every post/am super invested in everything they do. Usual reason: because I think they are a fantastic content creator. This makes me feel like they are inspiring and amazing and sometimes 'socially higher ranked' than me.          To battle my inferiority, I want them to acknowledge me. I want to 'have' them. I hate to admit it, but the words "notice me senpai" sum it up badly. A better way of describing it is “proving my inferiority complex as wrong and my internalised social hierarchy as false as fast as I can”.         The resolution is often hanging out in chat and writing a thread together. It will make me realise that we're both humans. Often, once the person gives me attention, I very quickly normalise them and am able to stop bad thoughts.        I really dislike the senpai/kohai dynamic and want to get rid of it asap. Giving me attention helps! I've experienced this squishing in class/ social/ work/ online/ cosplay environments. If I am 'squishing' on you, just pat my head, okay? 

I feel compelled to admit have had squishes on but then normalised as equal Sky.e, Ni.kki, Ju.lia, E.su, Ham.my, J, Cel.este, Va.na, and various others who I don’t need to mention because I never became friends with them. My squishes on these people were on the creative person as future friend, not(!!!) on the muses. I still have a ton of respect for these people.

People I'm in the process of normalising are Surfi and Jana. I'm doing well. I’m not that bad. When Hammy appears I still want a pat on the head though.

One person I'm squishing on quite much right now is Nami. I want all their attention. Nami, if you're reading this, I hope it doesn't drive you crazy (not as mad as it drives me). So I'm sorry that I post a reply 0.3 seconds after you post and seem to be online 24/7. 

And if anyone else is reading this, sorry I’m paying less attention to you.

I hate it when partners drop threads unannounced because I'll be waiting by the front door like a labrador waiting for a dead owner to come home.

Its fine if you tell me you want to drop a thread, no problem, no feeling of rejection here.

It's fine if you take 2 years to reply to a thread. Literally.

I forget thread posts. Feel free to poke me when I take longer than a month.

Me not replying to your roleplay request is because I'm imagining that my rejection of your request will hurt you as much as it would hurt me. I'm imagining your pain and emphasize with my fantasy to the point that I leave your request in my inbox for months. And then it hurts that I didn't reply.

Me not posting your submission/ask message is because I'm always feeling inferior. I don't feel worthy of your attention. I don't feel worthy of your text/art/time, so when I get it I feel THRILLED. Like, "WOW they like me!! Take that inferiority complex!!" I feel thrilled. I have to give you the perfect reply that will show you exactly how thrilled I am. Or give you a perfect drabble as reply.

Me not replying to your chat messages is not me intentionally disrespecting you. You are important. Goddamnit I want to keep you as a friend. It's me being EMOTIONAL AS FUCK AND I'M PREPARING A REPLY or I FORGOT ABOUT IT.

I only give myself permission to delete those after 6 months of struggling.

Me roleplaying super intensely with you and then suddenly not at all, is because the following happened: 

I  squished on you back then,

we wrote and for a while my days centerend around your online hours, 

I normalised you and I found tranquillity (good ending) OR 

I was called away because I had ignored real life and it became on fire. (bad ending, very much at risk of uncontrolled squishing on you again!!!)  

(I want to continue to enjoy being friends with you Super Duper Much, I respect your distaste for my silences, I’m sorry, and I feel bad TIMES TEN that I put you in this mood.) (I then feel worthless. Then inferior and wow hello devil on my shoulder that tells me bad things. Hey devil if you’re here do you pay rent?  And I begin to avoid you which makes you even unhappier. Then I avoid you and - etc. etc. Goddamn I just want to be friends and write rp WHY am I like this! Why am I so fearful? It doesn’t make any sense!)  

The thought of writing with you makes me excited times ten. I respect you. And because we didn't RP and you're worried and I feel I let you down... I want to "make it up to you by being perfect and worthy".        It catapults me right back into the mindset/habits from where I used to squish on you, and my day will center around you again. I know I don't /want/ that mindset to ambush me. It'll control me.         So I either postpone engagement with you, OR I ask/agree a day where we can write together. Then my intense emotions and refresh-the-page obsession and "OH MY GOD THIS RP IS SO GOOD U R SUCH AN AWESOME CONTENT CREATOR WE HAVE SO MUCH FUN" thoughts can be limited to that day.         During the next days (I usually need days), I can cool down from the hype and try to continue with my life and productively avoid the bad squish. This may come across as cold. But I assure you, my mind is constantly on you. And when I’m settled, I’ll be easier to approach for casual RP again. 

I find it extremely hard to deal with users who see me as their senpai. When I feel that you idolise me as senpai, want my attention and affection, want to be my friend, I get really uncomfortable. I usually search for ways to calm you down and make you realize I'm human. But if I do not feel equal, (because of IM chat/because writing styles clash) I can’t hang out with you. That’s not you, that’s me. Feeling inferior is something I’m trained in now and know how to go to ‘equals’ level fast, I’m not trained at all to feel superior. I screw up wayyy to much to accept that role. I will fear hurting you. I wouldn’t know how to try to become equals. So then I dash away. I’m sorry.

I'm not good at IM messaging in chat on tumblr or other social media online because I'll 1)get scared of the messages or 2) really really want to write with you. So I generally don't want to chat at all, except to plot roleplays. I find it difficult to send friends regular 'hi how are you' messages because I want a "friendship-without-obligations" that I described earlier.

Wow this list must scare you. I'm sorry.

It scares me. Wow, what a manual. I'm so complicated.

I'm worried now about whether I should post this. I sound like such a... a crazy online person that has a ton of things wrong in the head and should be avoided at all cost. ......... No, let me rephrase that. I’m a self-reflective person. I am a critical analyst of my mind and it's unique I can put it into words. 

DEAR TUMBLR FRIENDS...

- You don't want my squishing + I don't want my squishing. Let's work together so this bad mindset doesn't thrive, OK?

- You don't want to be ignored + I don't want my ‘conflict avoiding anxiety’ that makes me ignore you. Let's continue to communicate!! Please sandwich your critique in kindness. Kind-critical-kind. Then I'll reply faster!

- I am worth as much as every one of you. I am NOT your kohai and if you start seeing me as such I'll feel offended. I'm worth as much as any of you. (My mind cannot be trusted.)

- You cannot control what emotions I feel, nor the intensity. Anything(!) could spark me to go into a different mindset.

ROLEPLAY I suppose I have a 'type' of muse. 

I like writing confident-arrogant muses who never hesitate about being better than others. They used their unique traits that set them apart to excel (not fall), and are so fearless of social rejections that they boldly abandoned social-mediocority to craft a setting they thrive in.       Its because their growth/conquer mindsets appeal to me. I want to continue training myself to think like that. It helps battle my fears.       I identify with them.       Reasons: I worked hard and rose from being bullied at primary school and medium education level to upper-middle level. Now I'm at highest level of education (university) despite my flaws. I channelled my traits of creativity + kindness + hard work and made a ton of friends. I am now struggling with my university bachelor thesis. I have to finish it asap, but damn, I'm amazing, I never thought I'd get this far?? I'm in my world of my own making. My loving supporting surrounding friends/family/teachers help me function.  

IN CONCLUSION....

So in conclusion, I can only ask for your friendship, your kindness to forgive me when I mess up, and to please occasionally pet my head.

In return, I will generously offer friendship for however long you want me, will bravely engage in struggles to reply to your messages in time, and I offer you lots of FEELS from my muses.

I'm going to make sure that the time we hang out and write together, will be the MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE.

Excerpt from my thoughts to show you how it goes: Small bad thought in my head: "don't abandon me, please accept this RP service I offer, because you won't hang out with me for my personality due to my bad attention/communication skills. I can see why you like my Orochimaru/muses but can hardly see why you could like me." Louder good thought in my head: "Shut up you're a feeling from the AD.HD or conflict-avoident-personality-type part of my brain and you can't be trusted. LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING. I'M GREAT." Small thought: "...Keep telling yourself that." Louder thought: "Ouch. I mean. LA LA LA. POSITIVE SELF-DECEPTION  AGAINST BAD THOUGHTS UNTIL IT'S AN INTERNALISED TRUTH IS AN EMPOWERING METHOD THAT WORKS. LA LA LA." So that’s how it works. Sometimes I cannot differ which of the thoughts is bad and which one is the good one. 

EPILOGUE, I’m done.

Okay. I think I have figured myself out. I’ve re-evaluated my past. 

The urgent mess of thoughts in my brain has calmed down. I no longer feel like my head will explode. 

I’ve said all the things I wanted to say to myself, and I’ve said the things I want to say to tumblr friends. 

I’m going to pretend nooooo oneeee took the time to read this big post... so no one will be angry (something which I fear for no logical reason) ... and I’ll be able to sleep right now. 

[wandabherrera]

What Is A Good Essay Technique And How Can I Improve?

term papers Indeed, the scholarly year has effectively begun vigorously and, conversing with various youthful and develop understudies this week who have effectively been sent their first evaluation, having not read for some time (some for up to twenty years!) large numbers of these understudies were at that point anxiously getting some information about how they could best plan for finishing their work. The majority of these understudies were worried about whether they would have the option to make up the shortage they saw in their arrangement so they would then felt substantially less overwhelmed.

Therefore, this quickly set me off reasoning an incredible arrangement about what makes great article method based on my experience both as an understudy and as an educator now for realizing how to compose an exposition that is appropriately scholarly as a feature of a coursework appraisal.

The primary thing I would say is that creating viable paper procedure begins the second you start your investigations at school or college: you MUST go to the entirety of your talks and workshop (exercises) on the grounds that a ton of what you need to know for your appraisal will really be instructed to you. Besides, it is likewise basic for you to do the perusing and the work that your speakers (educators) expect you to do as a feature of your schoolwork outside of class time permitting in light of the fact that this will enhance what you are realizing in class and will assist with getting you in the 'scholarly mentality'.

It is likewise imperative to do compelling web research utilizing both web indexes like Google and more subject-explicit membership based sites like Westlaw and organized library research any place important to additional your examinations.

In any case, that doesn't actually disclose to us much about the paper composing measure itself...

The principal activity is to hope to design your work as per the inquiry you have set and the word check that you have been offered and to chip away at the accompanying premise - you should take a gander at your inquiry and choose what you accept are the key perspectives identified with the subject; at that point you should chip away at the premise that the more limited the word tally the more explicit you should be and, then again, the more drawn out the word tally the more you will actually want to talk about more extensive issues and show a profundity of examination investigating others perspectives and hypotheses regarding the matter that you are examining with more noteworthy investigation.

In light of this, by and large, it is typically a smart thought to compose sections that are no under seven lines or three complete sentences and close to 250 words long to stay away from grumblings for having a helpless design to your work.

In addition, in the presentation, I would suggest you give a concise diagram of the arrangement that you have created for your work so your assessor knows in what course your work will proceed to can pay special mind to the central issues that you have perceived and the assets that you have utilized (producers sure that you know your referring to - where vital look into the utilization of commentaries and Harvard referring to and how to reference). At that point, following on from this, you should go through every one of the thoughts that you have advanced in the presentation as a feature of your arrangement all together as they will show up talking about them in more noteworthy detail as isolated issues perceiving the significant focuses and afterward likewise 'interlinking' them so that there is a decent stream both in your individual passages AND starting with one then onto the next. This is significant on the grounds that, apparently, your sections ought to have the option to face investigation all alone and all things considered.

It is additionally essential to consider the language, syntax and sentence development you use. This is on the grounds that you not just should be scientific and basic in the thing you are composing, yet additionally explicit and brief - there isn't a requirement for colorful language since you are not composing a story; there is no requirement for long account or portrayal, rather you ought to be basic and logical based on your exploration so there is a need to allude to others' work in diary articles and course readings. Your improvement in this regard will be vigorously affected by what you read and the manner by which you are shown your subject so ensure that you focus and take a great deal of notes.

At long last, it is likewise important to consider the manner by which you will finish up your work.

This is on the grounds that there is typically a need to sum up and talk about the central issues from the remainder of your article's conversation in hoping to respond to the inquiry that you have been set by your assessors in the subject that you are embraced concentrates in. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that your assessor will have a ton of papers to stamp that are largely lovely comparative and, while they will peruse your work, they won't invest that much energy on it or take it in similarly that you would if, say, you were perusing a book. Additionally, you likewise need to see the value in that you may NOT generally be needed to compose the standard type of article end: you may simply need to cause suggestions based on what you to have written in the remainder of your work on how matters can be improved.

[blogsun]

MC7019_Week12

This week's readings encourage me to think about how to become a competitive mass comm researcher. Nelson (2020) suggested computational grounded theory based on NLP with three steps. The first two-steps pattern detection & Hypothesis Refinement) are basically what quantitative researchers have already used when doing topic modelings or other NLP techniques. For example, like descriptive statistics, most researchers calculated word frequency tables or word clouds to figure out word distributions in their corpus. Based on the results, researchers decide how to clean the corpus. The second step is to conduct and review NLP modelings. Most researchers have reviewed the results from modelings to figure out the optimal parameter value (for example, the number of topics k in LDA). Researchers interpret their data to explain characteristics or patterns in corpus to examine RQ or Hypotheses. Nothing new.

The third step (pattern confirmation) is something new to me. Nelson (2020) suggested using machine learning to validate NLP modeling results. Although it looks nice, it is weird. For example, machine learning is a tool to classify and predict given data, parameters, and algorithms. In other words, if different training sets, parameters, and algorithms are used, validation results can be dramatically different. Instead, it is better to use human coders. For instance, human coders with enough training and acceptable inter-coder reliability about topics extracted by a topic modeling can hand-code a randomly selected subset of texts and then compare the results with topic modeling results.

Even though Nelson's study (2020) is not something new, it shows that recent qualitative researchers have programming knowledge with strong domain expertise. Many experts say that data scientists need three abilities: domain expertise, programming skills, and math. However, if you are not a developer, you do not need to spend too much time on math. Like Nelson (2020)'s saying, understanding various tools, algorithms, and programming is enough to conduct high-quality scientific research. If you have a middle-level programming language, it is a matter of time to apply up-to-date computational statistics to research. While developers would make more efficient and concise codings, the results would not differ from social scientists with middle-level programming and mass knowledge for social science.

After having middle-level programming skills, a competitive edge requires domain-specific knowledge. If you follow a graduate school curriculum in a social science field, you get to reach a certain standard of domain expertise. In addition, the entry barrier of social science fields is relatively low. Reading good textbooks and literature is not technically difficult because there are not many jargons and concepts that ordinary people cannot understand.

It is, however, impossible to yield and solve data scientific research questions and hypotheses without programming knowledge. Still, many social science programs do not include programming. In my case, I have developed programming skills from the traditional mass comm method class. Still, most methods classes teach social science statistics using SPSS. Most method instructors require students to analyze data, giving data and statistical assignment. When other classmates just did it with SPSS, I conduct the same analyses with R. When I saw the same R results from SPSS, I felt confident that I are doing right. If the results are different, I try to figure out the differences between SPSS and R. After the semesters, I have used R for my research projects with more complex and unstructured data. Not long before, I realized the strength of programming languages compared to other commercial statistical packages such as SPSS, SAS, and STATA. Programming language is more time-efficient and flexible to use data science tools. R or Python enables you to combine social scientific methods with text-mining, network analysis, and machine learning with little effort, which is impossible in commercial statistical packages. Many developers also present excellent packages for R or Python to get data from web.

In sum, it is important to resist the temptation to use SPSS with a graphical interface. Instead, spend more time with R and Python. Even though a high learning curve (3 - 6 months) is painful and boring, it is worth investing your valuable time. Before long, you will realize the convenience and strong power of R and Python over SPSS. While increasing domain expertise inside and outside classes, develop more specific programming skills one by one for your research questions and hypotheses. Personally, mass comm method classes do not have to cling to SPSS anymore for instructors' convenience. It will deteriorate students' competitiveness in job markets and research.

[ba-hons-film-blog]

Film Narrative 2 - Fiction Project Critical Reflection:

Initial Idea, Story and Script:

The initial idea came from Euan, who had the broad idea of a door-to-door salesman trying to sell something. We then expanded the idea to have it follow a desperate, morally dubious salesman, who grows increasingly desperate in his efforts to sell his products to a vulnerable old woman. We liked the dubious morality of the idea, and the inner conflict this would give the (unnamed) Salesman. We also thought the two characters, who both had clear but conflicting objectives (the Salesman needs to secure a deal to provide for his family) and the elderly woman, Mrs Beale (who simply wants some company, and isn't interested in the Salesman’s pitch) would help to give the film some good narrative thrust, as Mrs Beale casually dismisses the Salesman’s pitches, and the Salesman then has to try a new, more dubious tactic to secure his sale.

I feel my main contributions were towards coming up with various story beats and character developments for the idea, and making some dialogue revisions to Euan’s second draft of the script. This is due to my interest in storytelling, and script writing. I personally feel like I made a good deal of suggestions for the plot which made it into the final script and feel my dialogue suggestions, while somewhat hurried and not overly polished, helped to expand certain beats where I felt the script rushed past a moment that could be used to create more tension or character. Overall, I feel happy with the final draft of the script, although I feel it was left slightly late, and would have liked to have had time to submit/review a few more drafts done by either Euan, myself or another member of the group, so as to fine tune each and every aspect of the script.

Pre Production Documents:

(For all pre production documents, go to this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15hR7u8XKGlIGuBE3ye0p2FvMvKXCiAJS)

While I did have some ideas for the films style (suggesting ideas like the tv show White Gold) and some ideas for certain shots which I shared with the group(like the opening shot were we see the Salesman who the neighbouring door slammed in his face), I feel I was more engaged with the story and script side of the project than I was with the production side. While that is more what I am interested in, I feel in the next project, I want to get more stuck into the pre production aspects, even if just for some variety and experience. I did do the logline and script synopsis, but that wasn't too far removed from my work with regards to the story and the script.

I think the group did a great job with their production documents, creating a clear sense of the film's style and cinematography. The only issue was sometimes a lack of communication between each person meant certain documents did not 100 percent lineup with each other (like the shot list and the storyboards feature differing shots) but overall, the documents weren’t too inconsistent with each other.

Editing:

I think the picture edit went well. This was my third time using avid (I had previously used it to edit a different scene from “Lethe” and a film of my own) so my this point I had more of an understanding of how to use the software. I tried to create a slow paced edit that generally stayed on the character of Eve as much as possible, as the story is told from her point of view. I feel I could have done a better job with regards to keeping the group up to date as my edit developed and getting their feedback, but I did get some good advice about my second edit from Zoe and group 4 in one tutorial that I took into consideration when working on my third edit.

I also attempted a sound edit using a free trial of Avid Ultimate, which was a good learning experience although ultimately I didn't feel too happy with my finished product. While I managed to raise the levels of the appropriate sounds, and avoided any jarring audio rises or any unnatural silences, I don't think I chose the best background sounds (I used the corridor and general hospital sounds for the whole video, as opposed to just using them at the end. This made the scene feel a bit too busy and overwhelming, and hearing some ambient room noise and beeping sounds throughout instead likely would have been a better choice). Ultimately, I felt the scene worked better before I added these sound effects. My edit didn't manage to export in time as well. We ultimately went with Rosie’s edit, although I still hope to rework mine at a later date.

Crit Feedback:

The logline and synopsis were praised for being intriguing (with regards to the logline), effectively summing up the events of the film (with regards to the synopsis) and overall being well written and well formatted. One shortcoming (or something that group 4 was complimented for having that we didn't have) was not making reference to the movie's style and genre. Additionally, while not necessary, a document describing the key characteristics of the main characters would have been a nice addition.

The rest of the pre production documents were well received. The storyboards by Cal were well drawn and gave a clear idea what the films cinematography would look like (although could have done with some text beneath each image), the costume/prop/set documents by Rosie gave a clear idea of the films style (as did the moodboard, although we were told some comments on each of the images would have helped) and the shotlist by Robbie was well formatted, and clear and concise with regards to what each shot would feature (despite some confusion over some of the abbreviations and the fact the storyboards and the shotlist did not completely line up).

Script Feedback:

(to follow. Apparently, Euan has not received this from Paul, which I will ask about and add once we have gotten the feedback)

Edit Feedback:

Here is the feedback Kieran gave me for my edit, along with my thoughts about it and how I would go about it differently in the future:

“Good professional practice with leader.”

“Atmospheric start, but the out of focus POV shot lasts too long.” - The reason this lasts for so long is to allow the character of Abe to slowly come into focus, to show how Eve is slowly waking up. However, I could definitely start the clip a few more seconds in and maybe cut of a second at the end, or just have a few seconds of a blurry Abe without a change in focus, although that might not be as effective.

“At 01:00:31:00 the scratching of the head doesn’t communicate tension and feels awkward.” - While I initially choose this part of the clip because I thought it would be interesting to have Kane doing something other than silently brooding, thinking about it again, I would agree with this, and would solve it by choosing a different part of the clip where Kane is simply standing still and looking ahead.

“It’s a good 40 seconds before anything really happens, which is too slow.” - I would agree with this - perhaps 20 seconds of build up could have been a good balance?

“Good reveal of the space at 01:00:47:04, using him turning around.” - Previously, this shot had been criticized for being too brief and seeming a bit random compared to the closer up shots used elsewhere. Despite this, I had kept it, as I felt it properly established the geography of the room and showed all the characters in relation to each other, so it was nice to hear Kieran liked this.

“The look at 01:00:59:00 is too short, allow the look to settle for a few frames before cutting to what someone is looking at to make it less jarring.” - I would agree with this. I'm not sure why I cut this so early, maybe the actor only looked over for a second and I worked with what I had, but I imagine more likely than not this was just an oversight.

“This whole section up to 01:02:13:00 is very good, but missing a reaction from him to her asking for the bed pan.” - I think I stayed on the shot of Eve instead of cutting to Kane purely because I liked his line delivery in that shot, but I could have either looked for a shot of Kane with line delivery of a similar quality or cut to Kane reacting to Eve’s line and then cut back to Eve and had Kane’s line.

“The watch pickup ECU is a little quick, as you haven’t established the watch previous to this and it is a key object.” - I would agree with this, and feel it could be solved by either having the watch appear earlier and only having it appear briefly here, or only having it appear here and holding on it longer to make up for that.

“Generally the pace is a little slow at the start and end, and this scene can’t sustain longer than 3 minutes.” - With a runtime of 3 minutes 23 seconds, and Kieran stating the scene couldn't sustain a runtime of over 3 minutes, this was understandably deemed too long. While I was going for a slower pace as opposed to a fast one, it may have been possible to have found a middle ground between the two. With the opening, I have already said that it could be whittled down to about 20 seconds. The ending might have been a bit more difficult to cut down, as it isn't just Eve lying in bed but going across the room and doing various things, but I still think I could have cut it down a bit. This could have been done by minimising the time Eve is simply crossing the room and looking through the bag, and giving a good amount of time to the more important beats, like the watch, the photo ID and the other bed.

Overall Reflection:

I think some more communication could have been a bit better, and we would have benefitted from a few more meetings, just to update each other, make sure we were on the same page and make sure there were no major differences in our work. I personally would have liked to have spent even more time fine turning the script, and getting in a few more drafts, but I am still quite happy with the submitted work. Despite this, I think everyone did a good job at their respective jobs and turned in work of high quality, and I look forward to working on the independent project with this feedback in mind.

[personalcoachingcenter]

Why Clarity and focus is Important in Business

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/why-clarity-and-focus-is-important-in-business/

Why Clarity and focus is Important in Business

Do you think you’re ready to become a full-time business owner? Few small businesses survive more than a couple of years, and everything that happens or doesn’t happen in and with your business is on you that’s.

A huge responsibility, but it can bring you huge satisfaction as well. For that to happen, though, you need to be clear on a few things from the outset. So let’s. Talk about those hello and welcome to the savvy corner, where we talk about managing your money, your business and your mind around it.

My journey to full-time entrepreneurship has been fairly uneventful, but looking back, there are some things I wish I knew at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, which would have made a transition easier.

That is what we will discuss in this post as part of the series ready for entrepreneurship, where I share practical tips and strategies for making the jump to entrepreneurship smoother. I’ve interviewed some amazing business owners on the things they wish they had known before making this transition, and I will share their wisdom and mine during the series today’s post will highlight why it’s important to have clarity in business.

What you need to focus on when starting out as an entrepreneur. I want to start by talking about expectations. Perhaps you’ve, been running your business as a psychic for a while or you’ve, read about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.

Maybe you’ve watched some videos about it on Youtube. I can pretty much guarantee that you will experience it differently than what you expect it to be. Let’s. Just get this out of the way it’s, not glamorous, not in the beginning.

Anyway, if you’re, imagining waking up at 4 00 a.m and then meditating for an hour going for a run. You jump in the shower, come out, prepare yourself a rainbow breakfast ball and you do an hour of journaling before starting your day.

At eight a.m, then, I’m, swear to disappoint, but it’s, not always like that. Sometimes I work until 10 p.m. In the evening, and by the time i go to bed, it’s already midnight, so waking up at 4, 00 am the next day to do it all over again is simply not an option.

I’d, rather get a couple more hours of sleep and not be a zombie all day. Also, you need to be prepared to do other things in addition to your specialty and the reason why you started the business and by other things I mean admin, work, business, development finances networking.

Let me take the example of a coaching business, so i can illustrate this better as an owner of a coaching business, you will not be spending all your time coaching unless you have a team behind you, you can expect to spend up to 50 or even more Of your time in the beginning, marketing the business talking to potential clients, putting together programs and proposals, and so on and finally, with regards to expectations being the best at what you do and being an expert in your field.

Doesn’t guarantee that your business will be successful. You need to develop your business development skills, which we will talk about in a moment, but before we do that, however, there is something else we need to touch upon, and that is clarity.

Clarity has become one of those cliché words that gets thrown around all the time. So if you’ve rolled your eyes when I mentioned it, I know exactly where you’re coming from, but people refer to it so often for a reason – and that is because, without clarity you will always be in a limbo state Of figuring it out figuring out what you want, who your clients are, what they want, how much to charge? What is your positioning on the market where your business is going, etc? I’ve already hinted to what i mean by clarity.

So let’s dissect this even further. First of all, you want to have clarity around your motivation for starting a business in the first place as Simon Sinek would say what’s your? Why, without a strong motivation or purpose, it will be difficult for you to create a vision and a mission for your business and to maintain a sustained effort as a business owner to progress your endeavor.

Secondly, you want to be very clear on what you do and who you do it for and be able to sum that up in a concise way. I created an entire post on how to determine your niche and ideal client, which i will link for you on the screen and in the description box.

Below clarity in this area will require some research with regards to your target market, the problem that they are facing and how to put together an offering that helps solve those problems. You might be surprised to hear this, but this research will also involve getting to know yourself better and your preferred way of getting involved in helping your clients find a solution with this kind of research comes another benefit which is getting clarity on your brand.

What does your business stand for? What are its values, what words or phrases describe it, the best, what colors match the vibe of your business and so on? Once you have clarity on your, why your niche and your brand, you will be able to strategically look at your business and decide where you want to take it and how you will achieve that.

Some of the business owners i talked to mentioned the continuity of their business and it being able to operate after they. Retired clarity is hugely important when it comes to maintaining your focus to reach whatever objectives you have for your business and not be tempted to fall into the trap of bright shiny object syndrome.

In the words of an entrepreneur. I interviewed being clear on your what and your why matters most way more than the what ifs another important element that the people I interviewed mentioned, was to focus on one thing at a time. This doesn’t just refer to your day-to-day tasks.

To what your business is about, you might want to do coaching and consulting teaching, training and development all at once.  You think they complement each other and you don’t want to limit yourself and your sources of income.

I agree you shouldn’t, but in the beginning you must focus on one thing: only otherwise you will overwhelm your audience and potential clients and possibly overwhelm yourself too one entrepreneur I interviewed sum this up nicely dream big, but execute small. Until you start getting known for one thing, your efforts should not be wasted on doing everything for everyone. This is why it’s so important to have a niche.

When I started, I was known for financial coaching for personal finances, and I did that for a while, before branching out into coaching people on their business finances, doing business, mentoring, teaching, consulting, and all the other things that I do in my business.

It was only after people got to know me for my financial coaching work that i got the opportunity to expand my business with the advantage of adding on offers that i knew were in demand, because people were asking for those services.

Specifically, if you’re enjoying the post so far, please give it a big thumbs up. This post was inspired by the tips and advice shared by these amazing entrepreneurs. I will leave their contact details below if you want to check out their work, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contribution.

I promised we would talk about business development, which is something a lot of the interviewees mentioned when it comes to this. The first thing I want you to know is that there is no magic formula that you can apply, which will get you your dream business in record time.

So if you receive any offers to purchase programs or services that will guarantee six figures in six weeks or whatever nonsense, please be extra vigilant. Business development takes time and consistency, and it requires clarity which we’ve already talked about.

There are a few principles you need to know, though. Firstly, people buy the benefits, not the features, so your marketing content and your sales conversations should all be around the results of working together, and how you can help people or organizations solve the particular problems that they are dealing with.

Speaking about marketing content, the sooner you start creating content the better and knowing the next principle i will mention, will help you. You need to be aware of the fact that people are willing to spend money on what they want, not necessarily on what they need.

So your content should reflect this.

Don’t talk about what you think they need talk about, what they want, which is usually a solution to a problem. At the same time, whatever the solution that you propose is make sure it doesn’t overwhelm your potential clients.

This happened to me in the beginning, when I was trying to offer my clients so much to make my services and products really valuable to them, that, for some it was too much. I had to learn that something simple easy to follow and concise is sometimes more valuable than a complex, offering packed full of information with fancy, graphs and tools.

Just because I, like that kind of stuff, doesn’t mean that my clients will who would have thought right. So far we’ve talked about expectations, clarity, focusing on one thing and business development.

There is one more thing i want to touch upon in this post, and that is opportunities. Sometimes there are opportunities coming your way opportunities and you will need to learn how to sift through them.

Although you might be tempted to say yes to everything, we will talk about filtering opportunities, ideas and people in a future post. But sometimes these opportunities won’t come your way and you will have to create them for yourself, which is why networking is so important and having a support system around you, which I talked about in the previous post in this series.

I will link it for you on the screen and in the description box, you cannot create opportunities without clarity, without focus and without working on your business, not just in it. I hope this post was helpful and if it was, you’d, be pleased to know that there are other black kids in the ready for entrepreneurship series. Source : Youtube

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