#it's fairly easy to pass ai art off as your own work

[beaft]

forgive me if this is a foolish question but can someone explain why everyone is so up in arms about nanowrimo giving the ok to people using ai to generate their novels? like yeah, obviously it's stupid as hell because this is supposed to be a creative endeavour, but it's not like the people who do this shit are gonna be making any money or getting any clout from it. is it just because it's bad for the environment?

[sunsuenm]

Get Paid To Take Pictures With Your Phone – 20 Ways That Work（Previous）

This is an article quoting a blogger.For more high-quality content, please go to the subscription blog: https://italiangoat.com/

In the past, high-quality cameras were expensive, fragile devices used primarily by professional photographers. And while you can still spend a pretty penny on a top-of-the-line model, most modern smartphone cameras are more than capable of taking amazing pictures — even if all you know how to do is point and click.

And whether you’re a full-time photographer or an amateur in search of a good side hustle, there are dozens of ways to sell the images from your phone.

All you need is a smartphone with a camera and a good platform on which to sell your photos.

In this post, we’ll run down some of the best ways to get paid to take pictures with your phone, and we’ll answer a few of the most commonly asked questions about the process.

Getting Started

Starting a photography side hustle is not as easy as whipping out your phone to catch a pretty sunset, then selling the image online.

Before you can get started making money from your iPhone or Android photos, you’ll need some equipment, software and basic know-how. You don’t need to be an expert — just cover these basics and you’ll be ready to get started.

Smartphone with a high-quality camera: With technology constantly advancing, a good smartphone camera is essential if you want your images to sell. Even if your images are properly framed and well-lit, they’ll be tough to sell if they’re shot with an outdated lens or in low resolution. Here’s a post that outlines some good quality smartphone cameras that will serve you well.

Photo editing software: You can do basic edits on your phone, but if you’re optimizing photos for print (think wall art and merch), you’re better off editing your images on a computer. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom have been the industry leaders in photo editing software for decades, but if the price tag is too steep, GIMP (desktop) and A Color Story (mobile) are cheaper alternatives for editing your photos.

#1. EyeEm

EyeEm has some exclusive technological advantages over other stock photo sites. The app’s algorithm analyzes your photos for aesthetic value and relevance and automatically tags their visual elements.

EyeEm also partners with Getty Images, a major stock photo website, which increases the exposure (and potential sale) of your images.

Completing photography “missions” (requests or contests from EyeEm clients) can get your photo licensed by big name brands, get your image shared on EyeEm’s social media channels, or earn you swag.

EyeEm pays a 50% royalty rate for sold images, and you retain all the copyrights to the photo.

#2. Foap

The Foap app offers clear guidelines on acceptance criteria for photos. You can also connect with other Foap photographers and get constructive feedback on your photos.

Foap offers 50% profit sharing on sold images. Payments are sent via PayPal.

Foap’s marketing is not as strong as some other big name stock image companies and apps. This has resulted in some users complaining about a lot of work for minimal pay. However, if you’re a new photographer looking to develop your skills and gain exposure, Foap can be a solid option.

#3. Snapwire

Snapwire has a fairly generous payout structure: you keep up to 100% on client requests and challenges, and you earn 50% on downloads from subscribers.

This app is much more based on client requests than others. Requesters can award points to photos that exemplify the look they’re going for. At the end of the contest, requesting companies buy the photos they want from the winner(s).

Photographers can “level up” with successful images and projects, gaining advantages with each level that helps them gain more exposure and sell more photos.

#4. AGORA Images

Based in Spain, the AGORA app is more like a social media platform than a stock photo website. They offer cash prizes for their weekly photo challenges, with winners determined by app users’ votes.

Payouts range from $1,000 to $25,000, along with the chance to be published in some of the leading newspapers and magazines around the world. Because they focus on a worldwide audience, competition is diverse but also steep.

AGORA is a great way to gain exposure. That said, while you may get lucky and win one of the contests, other apps may be a better fit if money is your primary goal.

Stock Photography Websites

When you see breathtaking landscapes and portraits with personality on stock photo websites, you may think they’re all shot by expert photographers with years of experience. But that’s not necessarily true. Many of these stock photography websites accept and sell images from shutterbugs of all types and experience levels.

#5. Adobe Stock

Formerly called Fotolia, Adobe Stock is woven into the Adobe suite of products. You can upload your photos directly from Lightroom or Bridge. If you’re new to tagging your photos, Adobe Stock’s AI will prompt you with relevant tags. Adobe stock pays 33% royalties to contributors via PayPal or Skrill.

#6. Shutterstock

Shutterstock is one of the most popular stock photo sites on the web. It offers a mobile app to help track sales, submit photos and get notifications of what customers want. Their payout structure is tiered, so the more lifetime earnings you have the greater the percentage of royalties you keep. Earnings top out at 30%.

#7. IStock By Getty Images

A great option for the experienced photographer, iStock by Getty Images requires you to get accepted to be a contributor. This is one of the most well-known stock photo websites, and while royalties start at only 15% (more for exclusive contributors), the high traffic makes it an option that’s well worth your time.

#8. 500XPrime

500X Prime offers high royalties for contributing photographers — 30% for non-exclusive and 60% with exclusive content. Each photo is reviewed prior to licensing for technical quality, originality, aesthetic value, and other requirements.Plus, their proprietary “Pulse” algorithm is designed to surface the submissions of new photographers so they can gain feedback and increase their exposure.

#9. Twenty20

Twenty20 is a part of the Envato ecosystem, which is an array of marketplaces for creative producers that offers everything from website templates to visual assets for use in video games.

If your photo gallery makes the Curated Collections, you’ll gain increased exposure on Twenty20’s website. Check out the Sold Feed to see what photos are selling in real time to help guide you on what to shoot.

Twenty20’s Subscriber Share is a more complicated payout structure than most, but it rewards photographers who have devoted, niche followings.

#10. DepositPhotos

Like Getty Images, DepositPhotos requires photographers to pass a short test and submit sample photos before they start uploading. Their compensation structure is generous: contributors earn 34% to 42% royalties from on-demand photos and $0.30 to $0.35 from subscription files. You can also level up your pay grade based on your overall amount of downloads. The more downloads your photos get, the greater your royalties on all your photos.

#11. Dreamstime

Dreamstime has been selling photographers’ stock photos since 2000. With a worldwide audience, the site supports multiple currencies and languages. It doesn’t require prior approval or testing to upload, but it does vet images to meet standards of commercial and creative appeal. Payouts range from 25% royalties for newbies to 60% for exclusive contributors.

Photos On Merchandise

You can create additional value by turning your photos into items for sale — especially if you have graphic design skills to create fresh, new images. From t-shirts to coffee mugs to wall hangings, there are online markets for all sorts of widgets to sell with your decorative photos.

#12. Etsy

On Etsy, you can sell prints, canvases, framed photos or digital image files — it’s all up to you. Opening your shop on their website is easy and free, and listing each item costs only 20 cents. Etsy handles the transaction while you do all the printing, packaging and shipping.

#13. Merch By Amazon

You can turn your art into t-shirts with Merch by Amazon. Amazon takes care of the business side of t-shirt production (printing, shipping and handling, and payment). Plus, they produce t-shirts as they’re ordered, so you don’t pay anything upfront (and you’re not stuck with boxes of t-shirts you can’t sell cluttering up your garage). Royalties are $1 to $10 per shirt.

#14. MiPic

If you want to go a step beyond t-shirts, MiPic can turn your photos into leggings, swimsuits, towels and more. Open your own customized print store and earn up to 20% commission on the sale of your items. There are no setup fees, and MiPic takes care of all of the manufacturing, sales and distribution aspects of the business.

#15. Society6

Society6 is more than just an online marketplace for selling items with your photos on them; it’s also a community of artists to engage with and inspire you. The website is very artist-focused, which is why they offer 10% commission on referred sales in addition to the 10% you make on your own items.

#16. Redbubble

Redbubble gives you a lot more leeway on setting your own prices than other photo sites. Rather than the website setting the price, then paying you a commission, Redbubble sets the base price, then you choose the markup on your items for sale. They offer a wide range of products to display your images, from scarves to coasters to journals.

#17. Instaprints

Instaprints has several unique marketing tools to increase your sales and exposure. You can sell on Facebook, through retail stores, and even license your art for the walls of TV show sets! The Instaprints mobile app lets customers see how your image will look on their wall before they buy.

Most features come with a free account, but premium members can access additional options like building your own website and sending promotional emails.

I will regularly share the high-quality content of the blog in order to help more people.

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (Console)

If you expected me to review the handheld versions from the title, sorry. I didn’t get those back when the games first came out. I’m considering getting them in the future and I’ll review them if that happens.

But onto The Eternal Night! The first Spyro game that caused me to consider quitting the series after playing! (Spoiler alert: I didn’t)

Gameplay

Basic controls are exactly the same as its direct predecessor, but with some new twists. Melee now lets you chain five air hits rather than three, and now we have the new ability: Dragon Time.

Dragon Time lets you slow down the environment around you. It’s used in some platforming, and it’s extremely useful in combat. It’s also just plain cool. Too bad I didn’t know how to use it properly when I first played!

If A New Beginning is too easy, The Eternal Night takes the opposite approach. Enemy AI has been improved, new types of enemies are sometimes very cheap, enemies respawn after you die and regain all of their health, cheap shots, and to top it all off, cheat codes for infinite health and mana don’t exist in this game when they were advertised to exist. So not only is it harder, but you’re forced to play it at that difficulty.

Okay, with one exception: the Dark Spyro cheat. It makes the game trivially easy, since Dark Spyro’s breath ability is really overpowered and hardly uses any mana. I honestly haven’t beaten the game without using this ability at least to defeat enemies I already beat. The game as designed just isn’t fun for me.

Additional Game Modes/Characters

There’s the Dragon Challenges that unlock after you beat the game. They’re some combat challenges with special rules. So it’s not really a new game mode, just more combat. I actually found them fun when I actually got around to them, though. (Which I think was the third time I played through the game - did them in a completed file alongside my playthrough on a different file)

Collectables

They actually return in this game! It’s not nearly as extensive as the Classic games, but it’s something.

The most common item is the Scriber’s Quill. These unlock concept art. Generally, these are relatively easy to find and get to, but some of them are hidden.

Then there’s Dragon Relics, which give bonuses to your maximum health and mana. These are hidden very well, to the point that I only found one my first playthrough. Some are extremely difficult to navigate to, as well, such as the Ancient Grove one, where you have to platform across small roots that are difficult to stay on.

They’re pretty fun to get, but they have a major problem: there’s no way to access levels you’ve already beaten without looping through a playthrough (beating the game and starting again on the same file). I always use a guide, simply because I haven’t played the game enough to memorize it. And you really shouldn’t have to do that.

But they exist, which is a step up from A New Beginning.

Breath Abilities

We get the same ones as last time, with some changes. Because plot, Spyro has to relearn his abilities again through the game, and they act a little differently this time. It’s mostly just that instead of a ranged attack, now we have a melee elemental attack.

Fire is fire. But no longer do we have fireballs, but instead the Comet Dash! It’s great for dealing a ton of damage or moving quickly. Honestly I don’t use it much, but it became pretty iconic later. So the fact that it originates here is noteworthy!

Ice is next this time around. The main attack is now a burst attack rather than a stream, and can be used to create platforms in water. Whoa, actual puzzles and platforming! There’s also the tail-based melee attack that slows down your enemies’ movement and, depending on the size of the enemy and your own upgrades, sends them flying. That attack alone made Ice my most-used element.

Earth is third. You get this big flail as your primary attack that you can whip around you quickly, attacking all enemies that surround you. The melee is a pulse attack as Spyro jumps and sends energy out in a sphere underneath him. I really didn’t use it much.

Finally, you get access to Lightning Breath. It was overpowered in the first game, so how does it hold up here? It’s usable, I guess. Primary attack is a large electric orb that you can knock away into distant enemies before blowing up. Pretty neat. Melee is a lightning whirlwind, that’s basically Comet Dash but much more controllable. Very powerful, but uses up mana pretty quickly.

Notice we don’t get any overpowered attacks this time around. Still, second attack wins. They’re all useful, though, as some enemies have hidden weaknesses, and they’re all different enough to be used in different situations.

Bosses

There’s a lot of them, but many are very similar to one another. Not even sure whether to call a lot of these boss fights or alternate game modes since they’re played a lot differently than the rest of the game.

The Assassin and all the Skurvywings fights are all pretty much the same. You’re on a 2D plane where you can move back and forth, and jump, while sending fire (and only fire) out to your opponent, who is flying around. The main difference between these fights is the distance between you and your opponent, and thus when you can hit them. The hardest part is dodging, but using Dragon Time makes it manageable. I find these fights pretty fun, since they have a different playstyle than usual.

Arborick uses the same controls as above, but with a twist: you need to attack all of the different parts of the body to proceed. I think in a specific order, too, but I don’t quite recall. There’s also a second round where you just attack as quickly as you can and dodge his attacks. Pretty creative and fun boss.

Fellmuth Arena is pretty much “lets take some bosses and minibosses from A New Beginning and have you fight them here in a small arena!”

We’ve got the Blunder Tails, which are some optional enemies in A New Beginning. This time, they’re both aggressive at the same time, and their AI’s a bit better. You have to use melee carefully to beat them. It’s a little tough with both of them after you, but they’re only mini-bosses, so it’s doable.

Hey, remember Steam? I bet you do! The Ravage Rider is identical to him! Except he only has two health bars instead of three, so he’s a little easier!

And finally, the Executioner. The guide I use says he’s identical to the Ice and Electric Kings from A New Beginning, but there is a fairly major difference here: you can’t spam ranged attacks if you don’t have any! Just that fact alone makes the fight a lot harder - you need to fight him like you were supposed to in the first place! *gasp*

Next up is Skabb, who is a boss that acts like a boss should. Dodge his attacks, wait until he rests, and beat on him when he does. You’ve seen this kind of boss as far back as A Hero’s Tail. (before that, you generally were using the environment or powerups to fight rather than your normal attacks)

The Elemental Spirits are more copies of the Ice and Electric King, but this time you’re limited to just one element when you fight them. Hope you upgraded more than just Ice! (I think you can also use Dark Spyro here if you’re cheap, though)

Remember Cynder’s fight from the first game? What if she was crazy aggressive and you could only use one element at a time on her? What if you simply can’t cheese her because Dark Spyro doesn’t work? Honestly, it’s a very fun fight. Although I think I mostly love it because the first time I completed the game, I spammed Dark Spyro everywhere I could, and here I was forced not to. And I had fun.

Finally, Gaul. you lose your breath abilities against him, meaning you’re forced to fight him with melee. It makes a very fun and intense fight. Second round you get access to Dark Spyro, but you aren’t completely out of the water as he still has some fight left in him. Dark Spyro’s still really overpowered, though. Still, you’ll need it. I had a blast the first time I actually got to him. Again, being forced not to use Dark Spyro (and then being in a fight where you have to use Dark Spyro) made it a lot of fun.

So in general, very varied, and there’s a ton of bosses here. Some are copy-pasted from A New Beginning, but with the increased difficulty, they feel new enough to work, and some limit what you can use against them.

Levels

Much more varied compared to the first game. Maybe not necessarily in style, but definitely in gameplay. There’s so much more platforming and cleverer puzzles scattered around. You need to make full use of Dragon Time and Spyro’s Elemental abilities not only to fight, but simply to get through each level.

The levels themselves are also well-themed and not nearly as cliche as in the first game. Okay, crystal-based caves are pretty cliche, as well as evil volcanoes. But Skabb’s Fleet, come on! Flying pirate ships manned by dogs!

I can say I definitely had a lot more fun maneuvering in this game than in tits predecessor.

Story

Honestly, a whole lotta nothing happens in this game. It’s basically the filler episode of the series. The storytelling is still incredibly well-done, but really, it all boils down to rescuing the princess dragoness.

So Cynder feels all guilty about the first game and tries to leave the Dragon Temple. Spyro tries to go after her, but unfortunately the Dragon Temple ends up under attack and Spyro has to go help.

After defending the Temple, Spyro gets a vision from this Chronicler guy and is instructed to find a special tree in a forest. Ignitus encourages him to follow his advice, and Spyro goes on to look for that tree.

Tree turns out to be Arborick. Who some pirates were in the middle of capturing for their arena tournament. They capture Spyro, too, for good measure, because he happened to pass out to learn a new breath ability at a bad time.

Spyro is forced to participate in the arena challenges. Turns out they captured Cynder, too, though. But Cynder is captured again by Gaul the Ape King’s forces. And Spyro has to break himself out of this situation to go after them. Oh, and Hunter of Avalar has a note delivered. He never really appears in this game.

He does, and promptly passes out in the middle of the ocean for another lesson. Luckily this turtle-guy you’ll never see again was there to rescue him. And take him to the Celestial Caves, where Spyro has to make it through the Chronicler’s security system before finally meeting the king of bad timing himself.

Spyro learns that Cynder has been captured by Gaul to be used to summon the Dark Master or something. Spyro wants to go after her. The Chronicler tells him to “ride out the storm. Live to fight another day,” basically telling him to stay there and stay safe.

Spyro say no way and escapes, traveling to the Mountain of Malefor and the Well of Souls to rescue Cynder. He faces Gaul, but not before the Celestial Moons do their thing and Spyro gets caught up in the corruption. He turns into Dark Spyro and brutally kills Gaul. It takes Cynder knocking him out of the beam to snap him out of it.

The cave crumbles around them, and there’s no escape. Spyro remembers the Chronicler’s words, and uses his time powers to freeze them in crystal. There they would be stuck, until Hunter finds them. Cue credits.

So yeah. But again, the storytelling is amazing despite what it is and I had a blast watching and experiencing it. The atmosphere’s great, and I really loved the sketchbook style some of the cutscenes had.

Once I saw the ending (because I think I looked it up on YouTube; I didn’t beat the game until many years later), I couldn’t wait for the next game. Mostly to watch it, because I had decided that if it was going to be this hard, I wouldn’t get it again. Sadly, this series never got a real conclusion in the same style.

Unique in the Series?

In many ways, yes. Dragon Time never shows up again, and thus a lot of the gameplay is completely unique because a lot of the game relies on it.

In other ways, it’s very similar to A New Beginning.

Conclusion

I gave up on this game because I didn’t like Action games at that age. Once I got older, and actually appreciated Action games a bit more, I learned to love this game.

Sure, it’s not perfect. Sure, I do need to cheat to fully enjoy it (because it’s not fun fighting cheap enemies you’ve already beaten. I just blast them until I get back to where I was before). But it’s a really solid game and a ton of fun.

On it’s own right, I think it’s just as good as the classic trilogy. It’s just a completely different genre. It’s a shame in hindsight that it didn’t do well enough for Krome to finish the series.

[niksethi]

#1000wordsofsummer Day 3

I didn’t write yesterday, so I guess I’m shooting for 2000 words today. That will be a struggle since I literally have zero idea about what I should talk about today. But since the amount of words is so damn large, it’s totally worth it for me to spend some time just sharing my stream of consciousness.

I feel like whatever I’m doing or wherever I am, I’m constantly appraising the value of that activity or that place. As in, every movie I see or book I read, I think about how I’d rate it in a 1-5 scale. Every city I visit I try to place in my internal rankings of all of the cities that I’ve visited. It’s a weird thing that sometimes improves the quality of my experiences and sometimes degrades it, as I lose the plot in favor of trying to find some sort of specific combination of things that will give me clarity about how good or bad something is. When I was last watching a movie, Upgrade, in my head I would start at a value based on what I’d heard about the number and move it up and down throughout the movie based on how I felt about the different aspects of the mise en scene. At some point, I started to feel like I was becoming like the unfeeling robotic AI that was a key character in the movie.

I’ve been applying this same methodology to my time in NYC. There’s a lot to appreciate in NYC and a lot that’s not so great. Each moment I enjoy or hate contributes to my overall corpus of information that I’ll use to decide the BIG question I want to answer by the end of the summer - do I want to live here for some of my life? Every time that question really appears in my head, I have to remind myself of what my mentor Henrik told me, “the city will always be there, and it will always be easy to visit, too.” Although my question is fairly important, I mustn’t feel like the city will be inaccessible if I don’t decide to move here. One of the biggest cities in the world is only a single flight away from most major cities in the world. All that being said, I’m really starting to warm up to NYC as a whole. A few months ago, I was completely convinced that this city isn’t for me. As a shy introvert who enjoys quiet and avoiding crowds of people, what could I find in the most energetic city? How would I find the necessary solitude and time for reflection that I know I need just to keep my head above water?

It didn’t take long for me to start feeling the effects of the frantic energy that permeates the concrete jungle. Since day one, I’ve had to be very careful about my caffeine consumption, since my base anxiety levels have risen dramatically, making each cup of coffee a gamble that could either lead to being energized or to shakes and anxiety attacks. (As I write this, I sip on a cup of cold brew that keeps me teetering on that fine line between the two possibilities.) Yet, I feel like I’ve been fortunate to find spaces that help me recharge and escape the chaotic energy. Parks are ubiquitous in the city and it’s easy to just wander into any one in particular and just watch all of the good boys and good girls run around the dog park. I think what’s helped me the most to adapt to living in the city is giving myself permission to be alone. Despite the fact that there are so many people in the city, it’s incredibly easy to fall into this deep level of despair from loneliness. Initially, I was afraid of falling into this state, so I would spend all of my free time with people. It was enjoyable but also draining, and I would wake up each morning with so little energy. It turns out that I’m still extremely introverted and I really can’t handle that much social interaction. Since I’ve let myself spend more time with myself, I’ve been much happier. There are moments when I feel lonely, but I don’t really have a problem with that every now and then. I’ve also been lucky to meet some great people who make the time I do spend with people meaningful and enjoyable. I’ve had a lot of friends in my life who I would spend time with but it would feel like I was just a way to pass some time, rather than a friend or someone important to them. The energy people put into their social interactions can really change the dynamic of a hang out completely, and I wasn’t even aware how much it mattered until now.

On a less philosophical and “out there” level, NYC has so much to offer to me. I hate driving and I love the subway and how it can take me anywhere. I love the inherent strangeness of the average person and how people watching can be more interesting than watching a movie or reading a book. I love the great diversity of dogs that I see throughout the city. I love the kindness of immigrant business owners who seem so comfortable with their own culture and so eager to share it. I love seeing different cultures express on every street, be it tourists or people who live here, enthusiastically chatting in their own language (as I write this I see a group of beautiful French people greet each other with kisses, catching up in a way I can’t understand).  I love that finding a good meal is easy. I love dodging cars to get where I want to go and I love glaring at tourists who walk too slow or stop in the middle of the sidewalk. More than anything else, I love how accessible the city feels. It’s empowering when a city has everything in the world and all of it is just a train ride away. I feel as if I can do and start anything if I really want to since everything I could possibly need is so nearby. Like basically everything else in the entire world, the way to approach living in the city is through balance. I have to be continuously intentional in order to keep myself from losing myself to the hustle and bustle of everything that’s going on but also make sure that I maintain space for myself to breathe and relax when necessary.

This next part is kinda off-topic but it relates to doing stuff as a part of the hustle and bustle

On Friday, BuzzFeed Design invited the brand designer Mackey Saturday to come speak about his design work, as a part of our internal design speaker series Design Club. He was a great speaker who told the story of his career and how he worked to create iconic brand identities like the Oculus logo and the Instagram wordmark. His skill in creating beautiful and lasting visuals was really inspiring for me, someone who has always struggled to create visually interesting design work. Since my skills as a designer have mainly been on the problem-identification and research side, I was struck by the huge gap between his skills and mine. Coming into this summer, I knew I wanted to develop my skills as quickly as possible. I was unsure whether or not I wanted to focus on my “strengths” in the discovery phase of the design process or develop my “weaknesses” in visual design. When I spoke to our (now former) VP of Design Cap, he told me “I think you’re kinda early to be working on balancing things. If i were you I’d be working on as many different things as I can and stretching my skills as much as possible.” That brought me back to Earth and reminded me that I don’t really know as much as I thought.

Going forward, I want to focus on finding projects that will help me do that. To kick off, I’m thinking about exploring a branding project of some sort in order to really stretch my visual identity skills. Maybe I’ll do multiple or freelance or something. I really have no idea. Maybe I’ll tackle my personal branding project that I’ve been thinking about forever. It’s so weird and difficult to design for yourself since you don’t have a fresh set of eyes when you’re presenting to the client. It’s your own eyes the whole time! The big thing is that I want to be able to at least slightly do something related to design that manifests in the real world. I’ve made logos and designs that have been printed on t-shirts and hats before, but I don’t know if I was really designing for those purposes or fully accomplishing what I was aiming for. The bigger thing is that I don’t really like any of those designs (except for the art matters logo, that’s still beautiful other than the type).

One thing that I’ve noticed is that it’s really hard for me to get started on any visual projects. I think it might just be because I’m out of practice. Writing has been continuously easy for me since I’ve been consistently writing something once a week for nearly a year now and I’m not really falling out of my habit. With visual work, whether it’s illustration or interface design, I’m not doing it all the time so starting a project in that area just seems like an impossible task. I need to take the first step towards doing it so it will keep getting easier and easier, but until then maybe I’ll start just writing out my ideas before I get there. When I was scanning through the old design case studies on our company Basecamp (a wiki of sorts I guess), I noticed that some of the designers would create their initial prototype as a story or something written out. By forcing themselves to convert their ideas into words, they were able to iterate on the design without having to draw or mock anything up, which would be a relief for me while I languish in the difficulty of starting these visual projects.

Another idea relating to this that I’ve been pondering is finding external interests. Although I love design, I’ve always wanted to be more involved in filmmaking, animation, and music. I could very easily spend a lot of my time exploring these things and working on projects to advance my skills, but I’m leaning against doing that. The giant behemoth of the full-time job search looms over everything that I do, and not focusing on my career more than my interests stresses me out. But who knows? Every design interview seems to tell me to have external interests outside of design to become a better designer. There are just so many paths I can take, so many ways to spend my time and probably so many ways that I could make myself happy. I can’t possibly know what will be best for me. The only path that’s certain is the one that I decide to take and focus on. I want to escape my state of stasis that I’ve developed while trying to choose between the many potential options. I’ve been trying to adopt the mindset that the best decision is the decision made quickly and firmly. This is better than indecision since you can change later if things go wrong, or you have more time and energy to contribute to fixing things if the decision was the wrong one.

I’m roughly at 2000 words and I’m frankly exhausted, but I’m happy that I was able to do it!

[raeofgayshine]

The Winter (Asshole) Soldier

Read it on ao3 

Part of the Let the Sun Come Streaming In series 

As it turns out, there are magnets that can stick to Bucky's arm. They just have to be hand made.

Warnings: None

When Steve first brought up the idea of wanting to do something to make Bucky’s arm seem less like a weapon and more like a part of him (because the more he regained his memories, the more Bucky seemed to hate the damn thing), Tony was mostly not paying attention to the conversation. It was morning, and by all standards for most of the group still fairly early, and besides Peter who had been happily chatting to anyone who would listen about his friends and everything he managed to get tied up in over the week, they were all not completely awake. And Tony, who was going on his third night now without much sleep, was focused almost solely on his coffee, and trying to find yet another method to help him finally sleep. So when Steve finally walked in looking like he hadn’t slept and makes himself the biggest cup of coffee he can before slumping in a chair next to Natasha, Tony felt for him really. But he doesn’t have enough energy in him to really care as Steve explains Bucky had another bad night, and it all came back to that fucking arm that was a permanent reminder Hydra and now Steve wished he had some way to make the arm more personal, to soften out the edges. Bruce and Tony had been working on trying to figure out a way to build a better replacement after they figured out how to remove the first one without hurting Bucky more than he already had been when the arm was attached, but they still had no idea how long that would take. The arm was fused into Bucky’s shoulder, and getting it out was going to be extremely dangerous and difficult. So they were still a while out.

And Steve just wanted to be able to do something, anything to be able to help Bucky out now.

There are a few suggestions thrown around on what can be done, but Tony doesn’t hear a single one until Sam says “Well you could always just stick magnets to it, you know since it’s made of fucking metal and everything.”

From across the table, Clint smirked. “Then it’s just the highest spot of honor to display stuff when one of them does something worth sharing.”

“You mean like when Steve gets his ass kicked taking on enemies twice his side?”  Sam said dryly, and Clint only smirked wider behind his coffee cup.

“Sometimes a little public shame is good for the soul. Besides, he can hang other things there too. My kids have always been fond of displaying their artwork on the fridge. And he’s probably at least as good as them at drawing.”

“If Barnes is the fridge and Steve’s the kid, then who is the parent that gets to hang the art?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at Clint, a shit eating grin on his face because he is entirely too amused by this turn of events.

Clint answers without even thinking. “Natasha obviously. Considering how often she’s dragging him out of trouble.”

“If the title of parent just comes from saving his ass, wouldn’t that make all of Steve’s parents?” Natasha asked, raising one eyebrow at Clint, a sly smile on her face, “I’m pretty sure it was part of signing up to be an Avenger. Kick ass, save the world, keep Steve Rogers from being a complete idiot and killing himself.”

Steve sighed heavily as Clint and Sam both dissolved into laughter unable to hold themselves together any longer, muttering something about how “kids these days have no respect for their elders”, which only made the pair laugh harder. Steve downed the rest of his coffee before he stood up, making another cup for himself and one for Bucky before he disappeared out the door and back to their shared apartment.

The conversation drifted back to other topics as the rest of the team finished up their breakfast and headed out to their various activities that day. No one mentioned the magnets, or finding a solution for Bucky’s arm after Steve left. And yet still when Tony finally entered his lab half an hour later he found the idea was still lingering in the back of his mind. He tried to shove it away for most of the day, not wanting to waste time on what had mostly been just a dumb joke. For the most part, he’s successful. It helps when Peter comes up and asks Tony to help him with something he’s working on for school. For a while, he manages to forget the idea altogether.

That night though, when he still couldn’t sleep for the fourth night in a row, Tony grabbed another coffee from the 24 hours Starbucks in the tower, and he headed down to his lab just to see if it would even theoretically be possible for a magnet to stick to Bucky’s arm.

…

After a few hours of research to find something that would stick to the metal in the arm, Tony crashes on the couch he keeps in the lab for these specific purposes just as the sun starts to rise.

When he wakes up, there’s a warm cup of coffee sitting on the table by his head. Bruce and Peter are already hard at work on their own projects, and when Tony finally forces himself to stand up and walk back over to his station, he’s shocked to find the answer to his search last night was sitting right in front of him. He turns his head to look at Bruce and then Peter about to ask why, but while Peter is completely engrossed in his work Bruce looks up just long enough to give Tony this soft half smile and just like that Tony gets it.

The smile he gives Bruce in return is maybe the first real one he had given anyone in weeks, and even if it was only a small one it still felt like progress. Tony turns back to his screen with his heart feeling just a little bit lighter, and thinks to himself that just maybe tonight he would be able to sleep for more than a few hours and everything would be okay.

…

By that afternoon Tony has a small hoard of magnets in various shapes, sizes, and colors, ones that you can join together to make any letter or shape that you wanted. This way, Steve or Bucky or whoever else wound up getting their hands on the magnets could use them to put whatever they wanted on the arm. They come in a range of colors too, from soft pastels to bright neons that glowed in the dark, so that Bucky would always have an option no matter what mood he was in. And they all were stored inside a soft but durable pouch Peter had made to keep them safe (the project he had so intently been working on when Tony first woke up). It looked safe, unassuming, and could easily slide into a pocket without any amount of fuss. And when the magnets were sealed inside, they didn’t make a sound no matter how much you shook them up.

It was perfect.

The only thing there was left to do was to deliver the magnets to Steve, and if he got lucky, get away without being questioned because if Steve even got a whiff of Tony’s sleep problems he wouldn’t let it go until he found out the cause. And Tony really didn’t feel like trying to explain whatever the hell was going on in his head and with his emotions to anyone. Especially not to Captain fucking America. Though that would be better than having to explain it to Steve Rogers.

With any luck though the magnets would provide enough distraction to keep anyone from asking questions. If not, well he can always count on Jarvis to provide a fake emergency if things started to fall apart. It wouldn’t be the first time his AI had saved him just in the nick of time. It provided Tony a certain amount of comfort.

Which is maybe why when he reaches their shared common area and find Bucky and Steve passed out on the couch together, Bucky’s metal arm dangling over the side and all on its own, Tony decides to have a little fun.

After all, what’s a better way to explain to the soldiers what the magnets did than to leave a message before they could ever wake up.

….

Tony’s just about finished with the magnets with Natasha and Clint came walking in together, signing back and forth furiously in a heated argument about something. Which comes to halting stop the minute they spot Tony.

He was crouched beside the couch hovering dangerously close to a sleeping Bucky, who was laying with his head in the lap of an also sleeping Steve Rogers. For a minute they both stared in confusion trying to piece together what is happening. Natasha steps forward first to get a better look and raises one eyebrow at Tony as she asks

“Why does Barnes’ arm say ‘Asshole’ on it?”

“I made magnets,” Tony replied instantly, holding up the bag of the extra magnets for Natasha to see with a smirk on his face. “Steve wanted to have something to make the arm more personal, so I decided to help out. I even wrote Barnes’ name to show how they work.”

A beat of silence passed before Clint started to laugh, and Natasha sighed exasperated, muttering something quietly about “being stuck with a group of five-year-old boys”, even though there was a slight smile on her face that gave away her own amusement.

“I can’t believe you actually went through with making those,” Clint said after he had calmed down, moving closer so that he could get a better look at the magnets. “One hell of a task just for a stupid prank.”

Tony shrugged like it was nothing, an easy smile on his face as he stood up from beside the couch, leaving the bag of extra magnets on the coffee table where the super soldiers would be sure to see it as soon as they woke up.

“A few hours is well worth the payoff to see Cap’s reaction.”

If Natasha and Clint shared a look that said they knew there was more behind Tony’s actions than he was saying, neither of them decided to mention it.

….

“Bucky, why does your arm say asshole on it?”

“Because he’s an asshole?”

“Fuck off Sam.”

“He’s not wrong though.”

“Traitor.”

“You’re my asshole though”

“…”

“Steve did you just really write ‘Mine’ on my arm?”

“Yes”

“You jealous fuck”

“You love me”

“For some reason or another”

….

“Seriously though where did these magnets come from?”

[buytabletsonline]

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While SUVs may seem the darlings of the automotive industry right now, there’s definitely plenty of room to innovate and wow the crowd in other segments: especially when you have a long list of new things to show off, like Audi. While the 2019 A8 represents the marque’s vision for sedans, the 2019 A7 Sportback embodies Audi’s vision for those buyers who demand a sportier sedan. The A7, however, is not one that can be confined and defined inside a rigid box. Instead, it takes inspiration from both past and present, and in the process embracing coupe, sedan, and even wagon in a single body.

Audi places heavy emphasis on the new A7 Sportback’s design over other aspects, and for good reason. Similar to the 2019 A8, the A7 takes inspiration from the Prologue concept, while, at the same time, still remaining unmistakably an A7. In fact, though the A7 and A8 may share many things in common, they offer it up in very different ways.

At its most straightforward, it’s about being driver-centric. Where the A8’s interior is defined by horizontal lines and an emphasized sense of space, befitting its sedan status, in the 2019 Audi A7, everything is turned toward the driver. The new Audi MMI system, functionally similar in both sedan and four-door coupe, is slanted more towards the driver in the latter. Everything is easily within reach and available at a quick and safe glance. The A7 Sportback puts the driver at the visual center of its universe.

It’s not an absolute, however. Unlike in the Audi TT, where the focus is completely on the driver, the new A7 straddles its three car lines and doesn’t ignore passengers altogether. In the real world, it makes a big difference: compared to the A8, which really feels like a car to be driven in, the A7 is a car that’s meant for you to drive yourself. During our two day drive in Cape Town, S. Africa, there was plenty of seat time both behind the wheel and as a passenger.

A welcome gain from the A8 is the extra space. The 0.8 inches of added length may not sound much but, combined with its 3.4-foot width, sitting comfortably inside the A7 would almost make you think you were inside the sedan instead. The lines blur even further when you see the familiar refreshed MMI system: like the 2019 A8, the new A7 Sportback is equipped with Audi’s new-generation MMI system.

Unlike previous iterations, Audi throws out the physical knobs and buttons in exchange for two fully touch-enabled screens, stacked one atop the other in the center console. What Audi hasn’t thrown out, however, is the unique MMI experience that Audi owners have grown to love. The old MMI’s audible and tactile “click” where the entire display “vibrates” is still present, an impressive feat considering the inherent limitations of touchscreen technologies.

Ease and speed of use are still also there, despite the complexity of digital user interfaces. Options are laid out on a single level, minimizing the need to drill down into menus before reaching the exact feature you’re hunting for. A new 12.3-inch virtual cockpit sits directly in front of the driver, replacing the analog instrumentation of old while still giving the illusion of depth thanks to the very high-resolution and responsive screen.

From the driver’s seat, operating the dual displays settles into an up-and-down cadence, almost tai-chi like in its zen. The icons, text, and graphics are easy to read with minimal complexity, a welcome relief compared to some of the more complex systems in rival cars.

While all carmakers boast of their attention to design and to detail, the A7 feels worthy of the praise. Take, for example, the extra sensors inside the front grille, which Audi’s designers managed to integrate into the car’s core design and thus give the coupé a unique fascia. Rather than wearing its active-assistance sensors like warts, the A7 subtly hides another pair of eyes inside the new “singleframe” grille.

Of course, the 2019 A7 Sportback can’t just be an art project: it must be functional, too. Compared to its predecessor, the 2019 model keeps the telltale silhouette while doubling-down on the sportier touches. The lower and wider grille, a new unified tail light, sharper shoulders, a built-in spoiler that automatically extends at 75 mph, and a more pronounced lip on the back are just some of the more obvious new design marks. At the same time, the familiar roofline and distinctive tapered rear remain, to continue the aesthetic legacy.

Under the hood, there’s more newness: the mild hybrid engine or “MHEV”. Combining a 3.0 liter V6 TFSI engine with a 48-volt electrical system, the 2019 A7 offers 340 HP and 369 lb-ft of torque, enough to do the 0 to 62 mph run in 5.3 seconds. More than just being about power, however, the A7 Sportback is also about efficiency. The belt alternator starter (BAS) charges a lithium-ion battery up to 12 kW when braking, as well as shutting the engine off not only when the car is at a halt, but when coasting between 34 and 99 mph. Indeed, Audi’s new start-stop feature doesn’t even wait for you to actually stop. Instead, it activates automatically from 13 mph, then uses the front cameras to restart the engine when the car in front begins to move.

How does the A7 Sportback perform in the real world? Unlike my recent 2019 Audi A8 level 3 autonomous drive where I went hunting for traffic, this time around I was on a mission to find roads less traveled. Unfortunately, folks all over the world must’ve gotten the memo that Cape Town is an extremely beautiful city to visit and, as such, traffic proved to be horrendous. The first day saw solid jams for hours on in and, at one point in the drive back to the hotel and unbeknownst to my drive partner, I deliberately got lost so that I’d get more seat time. Very sneaky, yes, but it gave me the opportunity to test out the Audi AI traffic jam pilot system which proved to be fantastic at keeping pace with stop-go urban traffic at up to 37.3 mph.

Given the A7’s interior, there are worse places to be trapped, but it’s really the open road where the car shines. Still, before getting there I had a first-hand experience of just how important – and how capable – the active safety technology is in this new car.

In Cape Town, it seems, it’s commonplace for pedestrians to walk on the side of the road, both on city streets and highway. Indeed, it’s fairly normal for pedestrians to cross over the freeways. It’s a worst-case-scenario for any driver, as was a man jumping out in front of the A7 while I was at the wheel. I slammed on the brakes, but Audi’s pre sense front and pre sense city active safety systems joined in too, kicking in their own exaggerated braking force and helping prevent an accident.

I’ve had plenty of hands-on experience aiming a car towards a mannequin and having the system jolt things to a complete stop before a collision, but nothing in those test scenarios quite prepares you for a real-life experience of the technology at work. Beginning with the Audi A8 and now the A7 Sportback too, the Audi pre sense and pre sense city safety systems can also detect cyclists in addition to pedestrians, while the car is traveling at up to speeds of 40 or 52.8 mph, depending on the model. They’re also able to detect other cars on the road, at up to speeds of 155.3 mph.

Once clear of the city and its pesky pedestrians, we found sections of roads with few cars and plenty of twisting turns. The open roads along the jaw-dropping coastline of Cape Town made for an excellent place to open up the V6. For the 2019 model year, Audi has paired it with its new 7-speed, dual-clutch transmission, replacing the A7’s former 8-speed. It may have lost a gear but it has only gained in accuracy, with shifts as smooth as butter, particularly when there’s literally seconds to pass slower moving cars on a tight two-lane road.

Equipment and features for the US market aren’t nailed down yet, nor pricing, and as such we don’t know if the 48-volt “coast mode” will make it stateside. It’s possible that the feature won’t be high on the list of priorities for buyers in the US, which I can understand, though if I was buying the A7 Sportback and Audi didn’t allow me to check off the optional Dynamic all-wheel steering, I wouldn’t be so happy. While the standard equipment package includes progressive steering with a sports ratio, the combination of dynamic steering and rear-wheel steering takes driving to a whole new level.

Cruising at lower speed around town, pulling into tight parking spots or making U-turns is significantly easier because the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction up to 5 degrees. It essentially shortens the wheelbase of the car, at speeds between 3.1 to 9.3 mph. At higher speeds, especially for quick passing maneuvers, the rear wheels follow the movement of the front wheels by an angle of up to 3.5 degrees. In that case, you get the sense of a longer wheelbase car, which ultimately results in more stability.

What we do know will make it to American shores is Audi’s drive select system. Depending who you’re with and the road conditions, there’s the option of allowing the drive modes to do all the heaving lifting in auto; or, as seemed preferable once free of traffic jams, you can switch over to dynamic and push the A7 Sportback to its fullest potential. There’s also efficient and comfort modes, with each adjusting factors like how quickly the transmission changes gears, the behavior of the sports differential and quattro drive, the steering, and the suspension’s damper control. If you prefer, you can customize individual mode with your own choice of settings.

Whatever your preference, it’s the Audi AI active suspension that’s doing all the heavy lifting. Depending on road conditions it can independently increase or decrease the load on each wheel, keep the car leveled. It proved most pronounced when we drove through some rough roads around Cape Town. On a few spirited stretches around the coast, especially when dealing tight switchbacks, the A7 does an astonishingly good impression of a sports car when in dynamic mode. The suddenly stiffer suspension reduces body roll noticeably.

Audi is positioning the 2019 A7 Sportback as a break from the past, with a new design and new technologies. All the same, though, the 2019 model is clearly an A7 through and through, picking up the torch not only in its design but in its spirit too. Sporty like a coupe, spacious like a sedan, and versatile like a wagon, the 2019 A7 Sportback is the perfect marriage of old and new, putting design, engineering, and technology at the service of what should truly be the center of a car’s universe: the driver at the wheel.

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