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legendoftheghost · 5 years ago

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NSFW Headcanon: Jin Sakai

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

Jin believes practicing aftercare will naturally develop closer, more intimate bonds with his partner. After sex, he is particularly vulnerable; they’re naked, they have (hopefully) just had an orgasm, and one of the most intrinsic need for him is that need to ensure that positive state of mind continues. Everyone feels good when he knows his partner cares for him, and what better way to show it than tending to his partner when they both are in a vulnerable post-sex state of mind? Jin is especially susceptible to the post-coital blues, and even when he is seemingly highly independent, somewhat repressed and distanced with expressing emotions, I think this will be the perfect time for him to take a plunge and attempt to cuddle and engage in deeper conversations.

B = Body part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

His entirety? Despite his fears of failure and flaws on his body, Jin Sakai is a man comfortable in his skin. From the crown of his head to the end of his toe, Jin Sakai has a body of a seasoned warrior; as a disciplined samurai, he had learned not only martial arts, but swordsmanship, horse riding, hunting, how to survive in the wilderness with bare essentials, and he literally has zero ounce of excessive fat on his body.

He’s not the strongest, biggest warrior, a powerhouse who can dominate and overwhelm enemies with brute strength, but he’s compact, sculpted with enough muscle definition, and corded with lean strength that only comes from meticulous care. Younger Jin used to hate the scar that would continue to bleed and bruise due to excessive bullying, but now that he is the Ghost, he thinks it only gives him character. After all, scars build character. And out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars, and Jin Sakai is a prime example of one.

Jin isn’t very particular when it comes to his partner’s favorite body part, but if his partner has anything that contrasts Jin’s own, he would obsess over that and touch him/her over and over. It could be the sensuous curve of the woman’s narrow waistand widening hips, the budding swell of her breasts and slender neck, or another man’s expansive chest and strong arms and legs embracing and cradling him.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

He doesn’t like the mess, and would prefer if he came inside his partner, but the one thing he finds it extremely appealing is coming on his partner’s stomach.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Jin loves talking about sex with partners, friends, whoever. To him, sex in essentiality is a fascinating subject that's different for each individual yet common to people all (in some way), and he finds it endlessly depressing that it's a taboo subject.everybody (for the most part) needs sex and wants to have sex, so Jin believes that people should be able to talk about it openly, and he will sass and awkwardly joke and humor with insinuations of sex in normal conversations.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

He snuck into Clan Sakai and Shimura’s personal archive / library and would sneak in some erotic illustrations of the time in curiosity. Despite the general lack of experience and focusing on his strenuous trainings, he would have fulfilled some curiosity of sexual exploration through masturbation and through secretive excursions with Ryuzo.

F = Favorite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

His preferred positions are; The Victory position, Doggy Style, Shoulder Hold, Lifted Missionary, and Lotus

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Appearing too serious is Jin Sakai’s greatest flaw; being too serious which is Jin’s principal trait doesn't seem like such a bad thing, but it could create some issues regarding sexual explorations.

Social anxiety.

Perfectionism.

Social awkwardness.

Fight or Flight responses to most things (Can't laugh inconveniences off or smoothly escape conflicts because of over seriousness, which is likely to do the opposite, in other words escalate minor conflicts to big ones).

Overthinking and not living in the moment.

Not having fun due to exaggerated thinking about the consequences.

Jin may be a sassmaster and likes to throw in some dry humor in between, but that’s his coping mechanism to lesson and ease his insecurity and stress that stems from even the sexual act itself, but in the act, he’s deadpan serious.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Judging by the full thatch of his beard, I’d like to think that he’s pretty thick and ample down there as well, peppered with hair below his belly button, and a nice, sizable thatch of his pubic hair.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Jin does crave intimacy during sex, and this is something which becomes very important to him. Jin is at his most vulnerable, candor, raw, and open, and if it’s not a casual sex only to fulfill the needs to get off than anything else, Jin still needs and wants to build some sort of friendship or connection beforehand. Their sexual performance is then more about action than it is about emotions and deeper layers of intimacy, and with more deeply-connected intimacy, he would rather focus on both the physical and mental connection, which could make it much difficult to come with him. Regardless, he is tender, and will attempt to initiate; especially stroking his partner’s back, the side of his/her face, raking through his/her hair, etc.

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

Jin likes the stop-squeeze technique, which is a form of ejaculatory control. It allows him to near the point of climax and then back off suddenly by holding the tip of the penis until the sensation subsides. He likes to do this multiple times to make his orgasm much more intense. While it could be a tedious or time-consuming practice, he likes that explosiveness and exquisite high he gets from it.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Shibari (kinbaku), aka rope sex: Contrasts are central to Shibari: intricate geometric patterns with the natural curves of the body, rough rope against soft skin and vulnerability side by side with strength. The practice can also lead to a trance-like experience for the tied partner and a rush of adrenalin for the artist, or rigger.

Erotic Asphyxiation (breath play): This type of sexual activity involves intentionally cutting off the air supply for you or your partner with choking, suffocating, and other acts. People who are into breath play say it can heighten sexual arousal and make orgasms more intense.

Dirty Talk: Jin can have a little trouble getting out of his own mind. However, in this case, it’s less about being able to connect to the body than it is a fear of letting go. A little dirty talk goes a long way in making him forget his fears and let loose.

L = Location (Favorite places to do the do)

Taking in consideration of his fugitive life, it would be somewhere relatively hidden and private. Especially in nature; against the tree trunk, near the lake or an ocean when the weather accompanies Jin’s mood, and empty, abandoned houses.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Jin is almost always turned on, and has higher than normal sex drive. He’s one of those who craves intimacy and wants to share himself with someone special, even though it doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t participate in any given opportunities when they are presented. It can feel like a chore and not really something he wants to waste their time or energy on if they cannot converse well to begin with. There must be underlying honesty and genuinity in order for Jin to at least partake in a casual sex.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Cockiness – specifically unwarranted arrogance accompanied by a smug attitude. Lack of a sense of humor – unless they’re the one dishing it out. Flaking – because flakes are some of the most unappealing individuals to build any type of relationship with. Being goalless and content with life — having zero aspirations for the future. Liars – but not even about significant stuff. Just unnecessary lies, made up stories and exaggerations when a fib is pointless. Vulgar language finding its way into every, single, sentence spoken. Baseless cattiness, malicious comments and disdain toward others. Humiliation and degradation. BDSM for BDSM’s sake without exploration, caution, and mutual respect.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

He’s much more inclined to receive than give. While Jin lacks the scope of experiences, he is skilled with his tongue, very attentive, considerate, and careful to observe his partner’s reaction. Because he is a perfectionist, he will attempt his absolute best to pleasure his partner and send him/her over the edge. He expects the same when he’s on the receiving end.

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

The act in itself is viewed essentially as a series of steps to his and his partner’s mutual satisfaction. It entirely depends on their shared needs. As a dominant top, Jin is likely to be a very passionate lover, focused on the connection he gains from this experience. He does appreciate and sees how much closer sex can bring him to someone he loves, and would rather be patient waiting for the right person to share this with, because for him to reach this step, it would have taken a lot of trial and error. He definitely likes things to built up towards the climax, exploring different positions to find their needs satisfied.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Jin actually prefers quickie, because it offers a much-needed opportunity to relieve stress, strengthen a relationship, and get off at a time when intimacy, connection, and, well, time, are luxuries (especially with him on the run). Prefers mutual masturbations, than penetrative sex.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Jin is likely to be a very passionate lover, focused on the connection he gains from this experience. He sees how much closer sex can bring him to someone he loves, and would rather be patient waiting for the right person to share this with. If he’s in a long-term relationship, he will be more than willing to experiment and take risks. It all depends on their shared interest, and Jin would be open to try everything at least once.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

From his strenuous training as not only as a samurai, but as the Ghost on the run, Jin has extremely high stamina and will be able to go on for more than a few rounds if his partner is up for it.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

Occasionally will use Geisha balls / beaded necklaces for added pleasure, mostly one another in reciprocated masturbations.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He isn’t very good at teasing, unless it’s with words. He is rather straightforward with his actions, because he doesn’t like to deceive with his affectionate, tender touches.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

On the quiet side, and for most of the lovemaking, he will make soft, gentle moans that turn into animalistic grunt when he’s on the verge of orgasm.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Perhaps one of the simplest, yet most potent sexual fantasies Jin has is just having his partner direct the sex script for the night. Whether it's a full-on dominant or simply a partner who knows what he or she wants and how to get it, he finds the thrill of a confident and sexual partner to be very appealing.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

He is uncircumcised, his shaft is curved slightly upward, with veins that snake along the underside. His member is longer than average (around 13cm when erect) and has considerable girth (9 centimeters when erect).

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Jin has rather active sex drive. It’s not a particularly powerful sex drive, for he could always resort to, and might prefer his own imaginations. His inner minds are rather rich place, and he doesn’t always feel like outwardly expressing this side of himself.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

All depends on Jin’s condition on that day; judging on the Ghost’s life (on the run, essentially a fugitive ronin), and a slew of traumas and PTSD trailing his back, Jin Sakai suffers from insomnia. While he has high stamina and could go for more than a couple of rounds when he’s in a particularly frisky mood, but one intense round could have him knocked out exhausted. He’s a kind of a guy that sneaks in sleep whenever and however it comes, so he would let himself fade away for an hour or two, before he’s coaxed to awake.

#▬▬ι═══════ﺤ || the storm of clan sakai (headcanon)#(nsfw)#jin sakai #ghost of tsushima #(compiled into one large post)

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letmeringabell · 6 years ago

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Legends Never Die - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 : Fancy Meetin’ Ya

I know, I'm posting really fast. But you've just gotta let the creative juices flow before I experience untimely burn-out that makes it harder to write. On the side-note, I really love Ada Wong's design, I think there's something just so mysterious and pretty about her design. So, imagine Vanessa as Ada.

Why Vanessa? Well, I only liked Vanessa because you could shorten it to Van. I also considered Vesper, and Diana, which I think are suitable names.

Also, can you tell I'm a fan of longing glances and slow burn? Yeah, I eat that shit up. I'm a sucker for fics of these cliches, and I always wanna die. But anyway, do tell me what you think of this chapter, whether I'm going too fast, too slow, whether i'm writing too much or too little. If you have any headcanons or scenarios, tell me now or forever hold your peace. Or do I forever hold my peace? I don't know man.

(3185 words)

AO3 link : https://archiveofourown.org/works/20806688/chapters/49454489

The flurry of sand and desert heat hadn’t been too kind on him, but when has Outworld weather been known for Southern hospitality? Nevertheless, he counts his lucky stars that he’s finally back, because the last mission has his bones ragged. The last mission hadn’t been hard, just tiresome; One of Kotal’s ‘trusted’ partner had been selling Imperial secrets behind his back, and who better but Erron Black to chase the bugger down?

Only this partner was highly elusive—Sending him high and low, left and right, and running all around to catch a whiff of the man. He had roamed from city to city, from village to village, and his target manages to sneak away at the last moment each time. The whole cat-and-mouse chase is enough to drive any man insane, but the cowboy isn’t deterred by the challenge so arrogantly posed. In fact, he waits, bides his time on the down-low patiently for any misstep by his target.

Although, a word from the wise is overdue; One must never let their guard down during a chase, especially when the predator had been the masked marauder himself.

Yet all it takes is one afternoon for the man to forget, wondering through busy markets without a care in the world, while Erron patiently stakes out in a room of one of the buildings nearby with his rifle aimed surreptitiously at the man’s head. The reminder had been fatal; All it takes is one shot, and the man falls without a sound.

The chaos that ensues after makes up for the silence in the man’s death. Everyone gathers around the corpse, and screams at the horror of the whole situation. He feels no need to wait around and collect the man’s body; The news of that man’s death will travel around, and that is proof enough that he had been successful in his headhunting. Nature had given everyone something to fall back on, and sooner or later, someone’s gotta fall on it.

And this time, it was that man’s turn to fall.

And it was his time to tap out for the night, had enough of all these games of cat-and-mouse. Gotta rest the old bones before conquering the days ahead.

Imagine his surprise when he got back to the Palace, to see the place filled to the brim with Special Forces units. He sees the Kahn having a conversation with the Commander, and saunters towards them, ignoring the hushed whispers on the sidelines.

“Hola, Miss Cassie Cage.”

“Erron, how awful it is to see you.”

“I assure you Darlin’, the feelings mutual,” He shoots back, “What brings you over to our humble abode?”

It is Kotal that cuts through their ‘cordial’ banter, “I have invited Special Forces here to help strengthen our ties with Earthrealm. Kitana and Jade will take care of their day-to-day needs, you will overlook their sparring sessions.”

Erron glares at the Kahn, but he lets it slide – The Kahn always compensates for his time generously. It is what keeps him loyal, and motivates him to undertake all sorts of janky missions for the sovereign. There is never a dull time serving Kotal, and he appreciates the unpredictability in his missions. It keeps him preoccupied, and least of all, keeps him entertained.

He excuses himself and leaves the Kahn and Commander to their affairs. Besides, he has an errand to attend to; A drop-off of rare medicinal herbs for the doctors at the Infirmary. All of them had requested for this specific breed of Spider Lilly, said it was good for re-energizing the tired soul. He could care less about the methods used in re-creating that effect, what mattered was the results.

He doesn’t bother with knocking when he enters the Infirmary. They know it’s him by the sound of his footsteps and they scramble to surround him like moths to a flame. He hands over the flower, and they thank him profusely. Appreciation and gratitude are good for the soul, but when a man’s tired, nothing sounded more tempting than a sip of whiskey and a comfortable bed to sleep on.

He looks up and catches sight of a woman leaning against the doorway of the unused office. Short raven hair, equally dark eyes, and she stands hardly the height of Sonya nor Cassie Cage (at least, from this distance), but looks strong enough to easily throw a man over her shoulder should he look at her the wrong way – Fitting, for a person working in the Special Forces.

It doesn’t hurt that she’s easy on the eyes as well. So, he tips his hat off to her, Howdy unspoken in his greeting towards her. He knows she can’t miss it, because he catches her in the act of sizing him up as well. Yet, she seemed confused, and a little curious? Nevertheless, she seemed to return the gesture with a small nod of her own before closing the door to retreat into the room.

“Who is she?”

She is one of the Doctors from Special Forces, one of them had replied. She had been part of the Special Forces Delegation, and assigned to the medical unit in the Palace infirmary. She came to learn and bring back Outworlds treatments and cures back to Earthrealm. A question pops into his head-- Aren’t Earthrealm’s medical practice vastly different from Outworld? In Outworld, doctors use high-level magicks to heal wounds of all variety—Burns, grazes, you name it. Given the supernatural nature of Outworlds modern medicine, he highly doubts she can learn anything from these doctors who uses spells instead of science.

(Then again, the only thing he knows of medicinal remedies is when his own Pa spat whiskey into his wounds, and damn, the pain had been one sonuvabitch to swallow)

“The Valerian root helps patients deal with their anxiety, a form of sedative, one might say. But taken in large and uncontrolled amounts, only backfires and induces insomnia.”

“What about this?”

“The Goldenseal root is used as an antiseptic. Again, if consumed in large amounts, is highly poisonous and will only further irritate the eye and skin.”

“And this?”

“The Echinacea leaf is commonly used to prevent flus or colds, but long-term use could disturb the body’s immune system.”

“Basically, too much of anything is a bad thing.”

Making medicine with the herbs and plants found in Outworld is challenging. The art of making medicine in Outworld, she finds, is similar to chemistry – If she places too little of one herb, the supposed effects don’t flourish and are made redundant because it is overpowered by the potency of other herbs. Yet, if carelessness had been her approach, she could easily induce unknown side-effects, or worse, actually kill a person. Thus, the delicate balance of underwhelming and catastrophic are outcomes she monitors like a hawk.

She enjoys this side of her work nonetheless. It allows her to better understand the more traditional aspects of her work, and expand on more creative options should modern medicine fail in being readily available.

However, the paperwork, and regular inventory checks are cumbersome all the same. Her rationale is that sometimes, you’ve just got to sit through the unsavory parts of the job so that you can reap its benefits. That doesn’t mean she can’t silently complain about how uneventful some days, or how stagnant her progress in learning can be. It’s become a point of contention, and it’s only been 2 weeks since her first day in Outworld. Her hands are itching for something new to work on.

Bored eyes cast sweeping glances over the city, and of course, she catches a glimpse of the cowboy himself. Ah, today is the training session between Outworld and Special Forces’ Soldiers. He is relaxed; There is a slight slouch in his posture, and he didn’t seem too interested in the body-tossing action happening right before him. She can tell, that he is still hypervigilant – His arms are at his side, and are steadily poised beside the holsters on his pants. All it takes is one motion to swipe his pistol up, and BANG!

And as much as she hates to admit it, her thoughts do float around the masked man she had met, no, seen. She hadn’t talked to him, nor has she passed him by in the past 2 weeks. She had asked her colleagues about the man, and the responses she had gotten were strangely varied – ‘He’s the Kahn’s main headhunter’, ‘A man who knows how to drink any man under the table’, and ‘Save a horse, ride a cowboy’. The last phrase had been told, but felt unneeded. Any person’s business under the sheets, is nothing she wants to know about. Least of all, his business.

But you are curious, a small voice whispers in the back of her mind, He is the leading man shrouded in mystery and danger.

She reprimanded herself; There are other things to be curious about.

The whole day has been a bore, and its starting to make his hands itch and fret restlessly. Apparently, today’s training session had been requested by Miss Cage, what better way there is to strengthen the bonds of friendship than participating in friendly kombat? He could just shut one eye, and believe her desire for camaraderie between soldiers of two realms, but he can see through her bullshit as clear as day, and it makes him raise a wary brow at the Commander.

The logic behind her unspoken reason had been sound – It is best to fight as many types of kombatants as you can, provided that one chooses their opponents well. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can get the theory down easy. But if you don’t have the practice, the real hand-to-hand experience, one can only expect to have their asses handed to them over and over again. Face-to-face Kombat allows fighters to exercise their real-time reactions, gives them the chance to better their reflexes and recognize the precise moment to either move forward and attack, or retract and defend.

So, today is a masterclass in Outworld Kombat for the Special Forces. However, the session is but a double-edged sword. Just as the Special Forces had come to learn and observe, the army had come prepared to do the same.

His eyes search for any telltale of black within the sea of browns and blondes, and is only greeted by her absence in return. He wants to make her acquaintance, and knows that she is a doctor for the Special Forces. That doesn’t give him the right to be waltzing into her office without any sort of official business. It would only invite talks of rumors and gossip to fly around, and he would be doing them both a favor by abstaining from such behavior.

So, what’s a man to do to earn his trip to the doctor’s office without seeming like such an ass?

He looks at Miss Cage, unless, the stirrings of a brilliant idea come to mind.

“Yo, Clint Eastwood! You too chicken to step into the Kumite zone with me?”

“Put your money where that mouth is, darlin’.”

So maybe he had been a little harsh, but Cassie had no qualms with dishing out her own brand of revenge – One rapid, well-timed kick to the core followed by a solid punch to his face. A just reward for insulting a beloved father. Outworld Soldiers are surprised by his lack of vigor in the fight, but none of Special Forces are surprised that Cassie is fierce in defending her family’s honor.

His face might hurt, and his pride a little wounded, but the fight had yielded results. He is sent to the Infirmary to await doctor’s treatment.

He waits because she is out for the moment, so he takes the chance to look around the room. There is nothing out of the ordinary; There is a couch placed near the door to welcome guests (or, patients), the books are shelved back-to-back against each other, and labelled for trouble-free browsing. He finds that most of the books are medical in nature, save for a select few in herbology and astronomy. A doctor must have her hobbies, he digresses. Everything on the desk is neatly arranged with each item assigned their designated corners; stationeries in one corner and a stack of papers in the other.

He picks up the top most paper on the pile, and lets his eyes roam over the elegant handwriting. He thinks she could easily be an artist because the sketches of various flowers and herbs are so lifelike, they mimic the figure of their real-life counterpart. There are arrows pointing to formulas and possible side-effects everywhere, and although her workspace maybe organized, her notes are just a jumbled mess.

But he admires her tenacity in the research because her notes are an impressive study in Outworld’s green.

Clack!

He turns around, and speak of the devil; She is there in the flesh, and a lot taller than he remembers.

“I’m sorry for the wait. My name is Vanessa, and I will be attending to you this evening.”

She ushers him to the seat beside her table, and begins her task; She listens to his heartbeat, flashes a light into his eyes, and asks him the routine, “Where do you feel pain?” and “Does your family have a history of serious diseases?”. He answers honestly and concisely – It’s just my face, and, I reckon not. She faithfully jots down whatever he says down into a piece of paper, and reaches for something in one of the drawers.

“First off,” She starts, and he sees a medical kit being placed on the table, “I can save you the trouble and stitch your wound now, but you’re also free to leave if you don’t want my medical attention, because in my understanding, Outworld has different and better ways to treat you. So, what will it be?”

Straight to business. “Have on, Miss Vanessa.”

She moves silently and deftly—She is quick at work to prepare all of the equipment, and arranges them in immaculate order on the tray in front of her. She disinfects the problem area, before filling the syringe with a clear liquid from one of the labeled bottles, and once he nods her assent, injects the anesthesia to help numb the pain during the stitching process.

Her gloved hands move nimbly, suture in one hand and the needle holder in the other, the constant loop of entry and exit is executed with practiced ease. Her hands don’t tremble, nor do they hesitate in fear of misstep. She is sure and confident with each push-and-pull, and it assures him that she is not without skill.

He takes the time now, to take a proper and closer look at her. Her short hair accentuates the high cheekbones and angular sharpness of her facial features and her eyes are a darkened grey; a reminder of misty mornings, and ominous fog. Her skin is glass-like, clear, no visible scar or blemish in sight. He spots the light dusting of freckles on tanned skin, no doubt, a result from the sun and heat of Outworld. She is what a cat would look like in flesh and blood, a thought he keeps safely to himself.

He will admit, she is a pretty little thing. Even so, the minute slouch in her posture, the mistiness and redness in her eyes, and the prominent dark circles under them is very telling. Underneath all that loveliness, is a woman exhausted. Whether it is the research or the field work that has her running on low fuel, he reckons that she could do with a few more hours of sleep.

She starts talking, her voice a soothing cadence to distract from the obvious monotone in the environment, “How did you get these wounds?”

“A souvenir from the past assignment, a man had gotten close enough to graze me with his knife, but not smart enough to actually kill me.”

“And why does your face hurt?”

“That’s a souvenir from your Commander,” He catches the question in her eyes, and the amused tilt of her lips, “That clown and his ten-gallon mouth deserved all the insults.”

“You really are a glutton for punishment,” She chuckles, sealing the stitch shut.

She gives him the standard doctor’s order – Rest and no sudden movements, or else he would risk exposing himself to an infection due to his torn stitches. He’s heard it all, from day one until day now, but he is thankful that she keeps it short and sweet.

“Do you sleep well, Mr. Black?” She interrupts him leaving, pulls out a bottle for him to see. “You can take it, it’s free.”

“Well, look who we have here, a doctor playing crafty salesman on a hot Sunday afternoon. Nothing in this world comes for free, so what’s the catch?”

She raises her arms in mock defeat, her expression is full of mirth, and a playful smile reaches her eyes, “Okay, it’s not FDA approved yet, but I know for a fact that it works. Cassie uses it, Jacqui uses it, and a few hundred others can also attest to its success.”

He raises a curious brow at her, a sign for her to continue her sales pitch. No matter how much she tries to hide it, he can tell that she is proud of her creation, because her voice is full of it, “It helps eases tenseness, and makes sleep easier, but unlike other soporific drugs, it doesn’t bring about excessive drowsiness, so you’re still able to react appropriately to any possible threats.”

Soporific, what a five-dollar word.

But he has something else in mind, because he leans in and places both arms rigidly on the arms of her chair, effectively trapping and confining her in the tight space between his arms. He leans towards her, and stops when the gap between them is nose-to-nose. He admits that he is shameless and forward in his flirting, but he wants to see how she would respond-- would she retreat further into her seat, or would she lean forward, would she bridge the gap between them?

So, she responds, neither further nor retreating. She stays still in her position; Her hands are firmly placed in her lap, while her grey eyes are staring straight back at him, her gaze sharpening into that of gentle steel.

“Hey Van, I was wondering if you had- Oh.”

Both of them immediately turn their heads towards Jacqui, the deer in headlights. Jacqui is full of apologies, because she is standing there, stumbling over her words, and says sorry over and over again for disturbing whatever doctor-patient examination they were having, and speeds out of the room faster than the pace she came in. Jacqui’s interruption breaks whatever tension, anticipation and apprehension swimming in the room, and it calms and cools the heat between them.

The Cowboy finally stands straight, his smirk hidden behind his mask and makes his way for the door.

“I’ll see you around, Miss Vanessa.”

#erron black #Mortal kombat 11 #mortal kombat fanfiction #cassie cage #jacqui briggs #johnny cage #Erron Black x F!OC #Slow burn #Fuck-me eyes #mk 11 #mk

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sttchs-blog · 6 years ago

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Edmond Marriage and Family Counseling

Common Side Effects Of Antidepressant Medication And How To Combat Them

Depression can make you feel like it is the end of your life is over. You may not be sure that seeing a therapist or taking medication and are looking for other possible alternatives.

Do not allow depression to keep you from your depression control your social life by keeping up with normal social outings and activities. Depression may keep you to want to avoid these activities.Keep on doing the things that you normally do.

When you think negatively about yourself, think about whether or not you would apply that statement to another. If the answer is no, you are probably being too hard on yourself. Try to reframe these types of thoughts more constructively or realistic by making statements that provide suggestions on how to fix the problem.

One critical thing to keep in mind is that you must avoid anything that triggers your depression triggers. If there is an action, an event, or a person that gets you depressed, make it a point to avoid those things. http://www.newvisioncounseling.org/

Antidepressants are a good way to rectify the correct balance of neurochemicals in your brain. However, these drugs work best when used with exercise, exercise and a determination on your part to get your life back to normal.

You must keep in mind that you are in charge of your thoughts. You should forbid yourself from all of your speech. This negative word to tell people how you are feeling.

Eliminate any form of the words "depression" and "depressive" from your vocabulary. While they are medically accurate terms, the terminology that comes along with it can leave people feeling stigmatized and overwhelmed. When you are struggling with a spell, say "feeling down" instead.

This is true for all forms of art, as participation can elevate the mood.

There is always hope for eliminating depression. People that suffer from depression feel like things won't get well again and discontinue their treatment. You can take that you have a positive attitude at these times.

Even if you must entice yourself with something special, your body still needs nutrients.

Be sure to de-stress your depression. Stress can keep depression in play and makes it stick around longer. You need to examine your life and determine what is causing stress. Once you've put your finger on the issues, you can create a plan for avoiding them.

Developing interest will help you battle depression.Some people have depression because there is nothing that interests in their life. These activities help satisfy you and keep negatives out of your life. http://www.newvisioncounseling.org/marriage-family-therapists-edmond/

Negative thinking is always present in a sign of depression. Someone who is depressed often minimizes any good present in their life, while someone who is happy tends to push aside any negative thoughts or deal with them head on. Staying positive can make people want to be around you so that you're not lonely.

Have a positive support group around you with your depression. It's hard to stay depressed when you're surrounded by happy people. A positive person can put happy thought into your head and cause you feel good during the day.

Try to consume three good meals each day that you are down. When depression hits, it may cause you to lose your appetite, and skipping meals makes depression even worse with low blood sugar, lack of energy, and a loss of motivation. Your body will not have enough energy if you're not taking in enough calories daily. Eating enough of the best way to keep your body needs.

If you have depression problems you shouldn't consume any foods that have the phenylalanine amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylalanine has phenol which is a huge allergenic. People with depression tend to be allergic to one thing or another and phenol increases one's reactions greatly. Avoid this in your diet.

One way to lessen your depression is to keep up with regular and healthy diet. Breakfast is important because it helps to jump start off your day as it increases metabolism and keeps hunger away. Studies have proven that omega-3 fats that are abundant in cold water fish, halibut, can help fight against depression.

Helping others is even better for your own feelings of self-worth.

This is not doing you or them any way. If you catch yourself talking about all the negativity going on in your life, consider the positives in your life and rewards yourself for staying away from depressive behaviors.

Take a single step at a time. Persons with depression often feel overwhelmed at the thought of having to do many things in just one single day. If you take small steps to make small changes with your own life, it is not as overwhelming on you, and it will be easier to accomplish your goals.

Helping others can help yourself beat your depression.

Try to get a good laugh the next time you're depressed.Laughter is indeed the best medicine for your mood. You can watch a comedy, have a good time with your friend, or just going out to a comedy club.Your depression may vanish without you knowing.

If you are suffering from depression, try to address the issues in your personal life that may be contributing to it. Problems with your relationships, relationships, work or other things can lead to depression easily. Getting individual things off your "list" might just provide the relief you a lot of relief. Set solid goals that are concrete and adhere to them. Even just taking the steps to start making your negative situations go away can be quite beneficial.

Focus on solving only a couple of issues at a sitting, giving yourself time to take care of each one individually through baby steps. Trying to solve lots of problems at once can negatively impact your mind, and only leads to failure and makes everything worse.

By using the information from this article and putting them in action and making an effort, you can leave your depression behind and get on to a happier future. You can be happy, find a way to do it and go for it.

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azeemmohammedglasgow · 4 years ago

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Azeem Mohammed glasgow Don't Waste Time Searching, Read All About Lead Generation Here

Azeem Mohammed glasgow Most excellent service provider. If you run a business, you know how hard it can be to glean potential customers. However, you can create sales leads by knowing how to market correctly. This guide gives you the basic tips you need to experience success. Keep reading to find out what you need to know.

Perfect the art of a good call to action, in order to generate more leads for your business. A good call to action is highly specific, very relevant to the particular readers and always links to a landing page where the offer can be found for purchase or download. Make your CTA count for more valuable leads.

Test a small market sample if you are trying to generate leads in a new way or area of consumer spending. While online marketing can be very economical, you don't want to waste a lot of resources on something that's going to go bust. Test a sample and if it generates a few leads, go for it! Otherwise, simply live and learn and move on.

See if you can sponsor local events in any way. Maybe you can buy uniforms for a Little League team, or have a banner at a church garage sale. If so, be sure to show up at the event yourself so you can shake hands and get face time with potential leads.

If you have not been tapping into the power of social media enough, then it's time to expand your efforts. There are cost efficient social media campaigns you can run on the most popular sites, and ways to really make content go viral. All of your customer base is there to help you share what you can do for your new customers.

Find out if any local publications available for free fit within your niche. For example, real estate agents can get into the local "New Homes" guides found in boxes around the city. If you are a dentist, you could get an ad in a free kids' magazine which details local attractions.

If there are local businesses within your niche, consider talking to them and using them to generate leads. For instance, if you're a personal organizer, you may give some tips and tricks that keep an office organized. Yoga instructors can give tips for easy stretches that can be done quickly through the day. If you are an expert in a particular field, don't be afraid to share your insights and knowledge with other professionals in your community.

Speak with people while waiting in line with them. No harm when you're making friendly conversation, and someone there might need the information you're selling. Don't try to say your sales pitch right away, but be sure you feel things out to figure out if they're interested in things without being overbearing.

Come up with a lead generation calendar. You do not want to isolate people through over-marketing. A schedule makes your business appear more professional. This also prevents you from making useless pitches to the same potential leads over and over.

Azeem Mohammed glasgow Proficient tips provider. Never overlook or underestimate a lead source. You will have many avenues for gathering leads such as buying or self-gathering or even word-of-mouth. Always look at each avenue for validity. Buying leads can be a great way to jump start your efforts, but they may not be the same quality leads you gain from a targeted effort.

If you're using a lead database, make sure it is well suited for you. What you sell may only be geared towards a certain niche audience. If you are buying a batch of leads of people who aren't looking for your product or service, it can be a big waste of time. This will only result in you having to go through a large amount of leads that may be worthless to you.

Try not to focus solely on contests. If people only think they'll win something by contacting you, they won't contact you otherwise. A contest once a year or so is a good idea to get your name out there, but that's it.

Use cost-effective advertising. Target those who are already interested in your niche with your ads, and offer them something of value. People like to receive free or discounted stuff, so getting them to your website this way will not be tough to do. Just make sure that more great offers await them on your site.

Say thank you in your marketing efforts. If someone fills out a form, have an email set up that sends them a thanks. If a person contacts you directly for more information, immediately give them a verbal thanks. Thank you goes a long way to building quick trust, and that means a stronger lead.

Utilize Facebook in your efforts to create leads. This can attract a large amount of customers with very little effort.

Consider publications which fit your niche and write for them. For example, real estate agents could write an article in New Homes Magazine about what to look for when checking out new homes, or what sort of fees one should expect when buying their first home, and then include a byline with a call to action.

Invite your website visitors to sign up for email notifications in return for special discounts and promotions. Everyone wants a bargain. If you make the discounts enticing enough, people will sign up. This is a good way for you to build up your lead database and to advertise your specials.

Be sure to join blogs, groups and forums online which fit your niche and participate daily. Include a link to your site in your signature so that others can follow you and what you do. As long as you stay professional and offer up your expertise, you'll find leads are generated.

Azeem Mohammed glasgow Proficient tips provider. Now that you are done with this article, you know a thing or two about generating sales leads. Use the methods within this article to glean consumer interest for your business. Once you have established adequate momentum, leads will materialize from a variety of avenues. Enjoy the success that follows.

#Azeem Mohammed glasgow

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ucmeteora · 5 years ago

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Metonymy

Elizabeth and her architect

Act one: Limitation and Resistance

E: All the old houses crumble and new ones rise. (1) My potential Existence won’t be victim to decay. In the grid of infinite sameness, content must be constantly added to this stem space to give it meaning. (2)

A: Thats why you need this vessel for your brand.

“In a world that incessantly consumes images, in a constantly expanding metropolitan culture, in a universe whose buildings are no more than a few of the infinite number of figurative and informative dwellings that surround us, there nonetheless exists the architectonic event. This event is like an extended chord, like an intensity at an energetic crux of streams of communication, a subjective apprehension offered by the architect in the joy of producing a polyphonic instant in the heart of the chaotic metropolis.” The “radical desolation” of weak architecture, “a groundlessness emerging out of the singularity of an event,” has “nothing to do with a lack of ability to manifest the conditions of the contemporary culture. Quite the contrary. This weakness is precisely the architectonic manifestation of the condition of contemporary culture.” (3)

E: Thus you’re not saying that only the body explains what is obscure in the mind. To the contrary, the mind is obscure, the depths of the mind are dark, and this dark nature is what explains and requires a body. Nothing obscure lives in us because we have a body, but we must have a body because there is an obscure object in us. (4)

A: Exactly, The essence of an image (or a body) is that it should be taken for reality and equally reality can shape the image, and pass itself off as having the same substance and meaning. Without disturbance or rupture, perception can continue the dream and fill in the gaps, bringing confirmation to all that is precarious in it and allowing it to accomplish its work. If illusions could appear as real as perception, then perception too could pass itself off as the truth, undeniable and visible. (5)

E: An image which must facilitate direct understandability! In this sense, this other architecture can be regarded as an architecture of resistance—resistance against the predictability of the traditional comprehension of architecture; resistance against the conformity supporting the status quo between institutions and the living environments; resistance against the cynical fear of imagining alternative possibilities in architecture and its visions of a better future; and resistance against the solely commodified and partial comprehension of architecture. (7)They don’t care for the world they enjoy. This situation, this state of affairs is grave and unbearable. We shall invent a new way of life; We shall have to construct another whole world from the ground up. It shall be built, it shall be created! (6)

A: I am willing to follow this peculiar thought line of yours for a while longer (8) as long as we can grab that beyond burger now.

Act two: Authority and Narcissism

E: I’m in love with myself. (I) regard narcissism as the central imaginary relation of human relationships. What crystallized analytic experience around this notion? Above all, its ambiguity. It is in fact an erotic relationship, all erotic identification, all seizing of the other in an image in a relationship of erotic captivation, occurs by way of the narcissitic relation and it is also the basis of aggressive tension. (9)

A: Who, with such instantaneous confidence, was recognised as mad? (10)

E: Don’t kid yourself, honey! You’re not building a house for a madwoman, what you’re building is me:

We speak of our 'self' only in virtue of these thousands of little witnesses which contemplate within us: it is always a third party who says 'me'. These contemplative souls must be assigned even to the rat in the labyrinth and to each muscle of the rat. Given that contemplation never appears at any moment during the action since it is always hidden, and since it 'does' nothing (even though something is done through it, something completely novel) it is easy to forget it and to interpret the entire process of excitation and reaction without any reference to repetition the more so since this reference appears only in the relation in which both excitations and reactions stand to the contemplative souls.The role of the imagination, or the mind which contemplates in its multiple and fragmented states, is to draw something new from repetition, to draw difference from it. For that matter, repetition is itself in essence imaginary, since the imagination alone here forms the 'moment' of the vis repetitiva from the point of view of constitution: it makes that which it contracts appear as elements or cases of repetition. Imaginary repetition is not a false repetition which stands in for the absent true repetition: true repetition takes place in imagination. Between a repetition which never ceases to unravel itself and a repetition which is deployed and conserved for us in the space of representation there was difference, the for itself of repetition, the imaginary. (11)

A: It is necessary to be outside ideology … to say: I am in ideology’. In architecture, interpellations are being imposed at three different levels: firstly, through the disciplining process (institutions, boards, academia, publications, clients, the market, and so on); secondly, by the architectonic objects produced, which create a ritual, constantly reinforcing how architecture should be understood; and finally by the instruments that architects use, such as perspective or computational techniques, which both frame and produce facts. Architecture does not simply present ideologies as facts, as if it were lying; it actually transforms ideologies into social facts. The Prince complex (or, the architectural unconscious) the theory of history has only recently tried to overcome the chronicle of the princes by means of a history of the masses, the everyday life and the concrete conditions (not just what lies on the wave crest, but the enormous forces of movement in the depth of the sea). Nevertheless, architectural imagination is still trapped in narcissistic histories of ‘Princes’. Machiavelli’s book The Prince creates an intellectual device for political practice to counter ‘fortuna’ (the conjecture) in order to rule, thus demanding ‘negativity’ and ‘objectivity’ (virtú) to control the randomness of the future. By doing so, Machiavelli was not inventing the prince per se. What he revealed was the representational character of this practice. (12)

E: Rather, (my) meaning unfolds as (my) viewers participate in the social situation (I) ha(ve) orchestrated. (13)

A: The noblest are certainly those who are entrusted with the supreme Authority and Moderation in public Affairs. (14) For this Reason I would have the Temple made so beautiful, that the Imagination should not be able to form an Idea of any Place more so; and I would have every Part so contrived and adorned, as to fill the Beholders with Awe and Amazement, at the Consideration of so many noble and excellent Things, and almost force them to cry out with Astonishment: This Place is certainly worthy of God! (15) Thus the buildings design will have an attractive appearance, its unimpeded entrance, utility, and the walkway around the cella, authority. (16) And, in (my) opinion, age will give a temple as much authority, as ornament will give it dignity. (17)

Act three: Resurrection, Interaction

E: By slow degrees a special authority takes shape within the ego; this authority, which is able to confront the rest of the ego, performs the function of self observation and self criticism, exercises a kind of psychical censorship, and so becomes what we know as the ‘conscience’. The existence of such an authority, which can treat the rest of the ego as an object – the fact that, in other words, man is capable of self observation – makes it possible to imbue the old idea of the double with a new content and attribute a number of features to it – above all, those which, in the light of self criticism, seem to belong to the old, superannuated narcissism of primitive times. Yet it is not only this content – which is objectionable to self criticism – that can be embodied in the figure of the double: in addition there are all the possibilities which, had they been realized, might have shaped our destiny, and to which our imagination still clings, all the strivings of the ego that were frustrated by adverse circumstances, all the suppressed acts of volition that fostered the illusion of free will. (18)

A: Freedom is thus not freedom from a Master, but the replacement of one Master with another; the external Master is replaced with an internal one. (19) It acts as a (partially) autonomous, and spatially, structurally, programmatically, and visually homogeneous whole which is never completely autonomous due to its integration to a network system. (20) Mentalities of cooperation, social exchange, and interaction are, through the order of the urban, to be elicited and maintained. (21) The framing of communicative interaction is the societal function of both architecture and design. (22) But what about visual, sensory, and aesthetic interaction? (23)

E: The strategy seems, to “derive from the ‘organic’ demand for the integration of space and structure; and, as fulfilling this demand, the building becomes a single, complete, and self explanatory utterance.” (24) Freed of all normative impediments, of all questions of realization or production, the creative imagination can identify itself with global consciousness. Prospective aesthetics is the vehicle of man’s greatest hope: the collective liberation of humanity. The socialization of art represents the convergence of the forces of creation and production toward a goal of dynamic synthesis and technical metamorphosis: it is through such restructuring that man and reality find their true, modern face, that they become natural again, having overcome all alienation. Thus the circle closes. (25)

Together we will invent what I call the imagination without strings. (26)

A: How do you want to achieve that?

E: We should throw a ball. Instances of this kind are so plentiful every where, that if I add one more, it is only for the pleasant oddness of it. Dance, and that to great Perfection! (27)

(1) Hugo, Les Miserables

(2) Sorkin, All Over the Map

(3)Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968

(4) Deleuze, The Fold

(5) Foucault, History of Madness

(6) Alberti, Momus

(7) Senk, Capsules Typology of Other Architecture

(8) Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology

(9) Lacan, The Psychoses Seminars of JL

(10) Foucault, History of Madness

(11) Deleuze, Difference and Repetition

(12) Stoppani, This Thing Called Theory Critiques Critical Stud

(13) Bureaud, MetaLife Biotechnologies Synthetic Biology ALi

(14) Alberti, 10 books of architecture 1755

(15)Alberti, 10 books of architecture 1755

(16) Vitruvius, Ten Books on Architecture 1999

(17) Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books 1988

(18) Freud, The Uncanny

(19) Zitzen, Less than nothing

(20) Senk, Capsules Typology of Other Architecture

(21) Lahiji, Architecture Against the PostPolitical Essays

(22) Schumacher, The Autopoiesis of Architecture Vol1

(23) Doherty, Is Landscape Essays on the Identity of Landsc

(24) Hartoonian, Time History and Architecture Essays on Critical

(25) Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968

(26) Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968

(27) Harrison Wood Gaiger, Art in Theory 1648 1815

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sempiternalsandpitturtle · 6 years ago

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Hotel digital marketing strategies and trends that work

In the third episode of the classic BBC2 comedy series “Fawlty Towers”, hotelier and protagonist Basil Fawlty tells one guest: “I’m trying to run a hotel here. Have you any idea of how much [work] there is to do?” And that was decades ago, before online bookings, Airbnb rentals and social media platforms even existed.

Were he real and doing business today, Fawlty would have needed a full-fledged digital marketing strategy just to let prospective guests know what kind of experience they could expect when staying at his Torquay hotel.

A hotel’s website, online presence and content marketing campaigns are all pivotal in differentiating its particular amenities from those of many other seemingly similar venues.

Hotel digital marketing 101: Why it’s essential and what it looks like

So what do prospective guests prioritise when booking a hotel room?

Location and price are considerations that even the absent-minded Fawlty or Hotels.com’s own Captain Obvious would recognise as important, but they’re not everything.

Loyalty rewards and incentives, staff friendliness and multichannel communications options (e.g., being able to text or email with a hotel about a reservation) are also key differentiators.

Hotels try to convey these granular advantages, along with the current promos and unique experiences they offer, through their digital marketing efforts, which range from website ads and calls-to-action (CTAs), to more detailed content such as blogs and even short films.

Indeed, such multichannel digital marketing is essential in the modern hospitality industry, as consumers now perform most of their hotel research and bookings via the internet.

TrekkSoft’s Travel Reports 2019 found that two-thirds (66.7%) of hotel stays were reserved via direct online bookings, with the rest coming from agents and affiliates (24.3%) and online travel agencies such as Viator and Expedia (9.1%).

Hotels have plenty of good options for telling their compelling brand stories, especially ones that revolve around the unique experiences they offer and fuel conversions on their websites and in all-important booking engines.

Let’s look at a few basic examples of current marketing trends that hotels are following to fuel brand awareness and drive revenue, starting with something relatively straightforward and simple – running ads – and working our way up to more sophisticated assets.

Display and search ads

Like organisations in most industries, hotels run digital ads to build their online presence and boost conversions.

This banner ad on TripAdvisor is typical, with its aspirational imagery, urgency (“best rates of the season,” “must book by July 31”) and actionable booking button.

Free email platforms such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail are also common venues for ads that work well in tandem with email marketing campaigns:

Search ads, also commonly referred to as paid search or PPC, are more advanced, in that they are contained in their own specialiszed cards or sections within search engines such as Google and DuckDuckGo.

A search for “Miami hotels” will return a listing of multiple locations, complete with reviews and map pins, as in this result from DuckDuckGo in partnership with Apple Maps and Yelp:

Each listing can be clicked to see a phone number and other contact info.

Ads are particularly useful for alerting shoppers to a hotel’s existence while they browse the numerous listings in an online marketplace. On their own, though, they are far from sufficient for sustaining a successful marketing campaign.

Ads have low click-through rates – far less than 1% for display ads across the industry as a whole, and only a bit better for paid search. Plus, they don’t tell consumers much about what they can expect from a particular hotel in terms of its perks and experience.

Takeaways:

Ads help raise awareness, both on search engines where there’s high purchase intent and on affiliate sites via display networks.

Click-through rates are low in the hospitality industry, however.

Blogs and content marketing

Giving guests more context and option differentiation as they decide where to book requires more sophisticated types of content.

The online Four Seasons Magazine from the Four Seasons chain is a prime example of going deeper on what sets a particular hotel apart:

This huge, dedicated content marketing site features an abundance of feature-length articles, in which real customers describe their experiences in locales where they also stayed at a Four Seasons hotel.

While the site has a glossy and premium feel to it, it also smartly integrates CTAs that encourage bookings without seeming too heavy-handed, such as the “Check Rates” button on the home page or this “Check Rates & Availability” one that appears throughout the Hawaii article teased above:

Four Seasons’ efforts in creating this digital magazine show a commitment to cultivating a certain type of buyer, namely one seeking memorable experiences and not just nice or affordable accommodations.

The site’s design features many large high-quality photos and extensive guides (such as “How to unplug in Las Vegas”) that make it both a visually attractive and highly practical publication.

Takeaways:

A blog with a mix of photos and written content can provide a detailed look at what customers can expect at and near a particular hotel.

While seeming noncommercial on the surface, the content still provides chances to work in CTAs that drive conversions.

Video marketing

Marriott conducted a similarly ambitious content marketing initiative, likewise focused on promoting the experience of staying at its locations rather than the price of doing so, with its “Two Bellmen Three” short film.

youtube

Starring Ki Hong Lee of “Maze Runner” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” fame, this video marketing campaign was linked to the chain’s JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul location, where the short’s pivotal wedding sequence takes place. The film’s page on the Marriott site displays a Seoul city guide and a booking link next to the full embedded video.

This “day in the life” spot featuring the general manager of the Anantara Siam in Bangkok showcases everything from the hotel’s hallways to its pool, all set to music and a visual aesthetic that recall a Bond film:

youtube

Takeaways:

Video can provide a unique, in-depth look at hotel sites, a la a virtual tour or a series of testimonials.

Both short- and long-form videos are potentially worth exploring.

More hotel marketing strategies that reliably convert leads

Digital ads, blogs and long-form videos show the enormous range of what’s possible in hotel digital marketing today.

Hotel brands often look to carve out their own niches by combining these approaches with each other and with additional strategies such as innovative rewards programmes and hands-on engagement across social media platforms.

Loyalty campaigns: More than just points

With virtually infinite options out there for lodging, loyalty programmes give hotels great opportunities to stand out from the competition.

Call-outs related to points-based enrollment and/or redemption are often among the first things a site visitor sees on many major hotels’ sites, such as this one from Hyatt:

Traditionally, rewards programmes have been based on points accrual and redemption. However, their structures can be difficult to understand, making them frustrating to use. An Oracle Hospitality consumer survey found that many programme participants thought it took too long to earn enough points for anything good.

In this context, some hotels have put a new spin on rewards with loyalty-focused marketing campaigns that communicate the value of their programmes in straightforward language. For example, Wyndham redesigned Wyndham Rewards to include four distinct tiers, including an entry-level Blue Member status with immediate benefits including free Wi-Fi and no expiration of rollover nights – no points required!

To promote and explain the programme, Wyndham shot a series of videos called Wyzard Wyzdom, starring a wizard played by “Game of Thrones” actor Kristofer Hivju.

In one of these videos, he notes how 15,000 points can be redeemed for a “magical free night” and provided some fun advice for packing luggage. There’s also a tip about how booking 2+ days in advance can earn 200 quick points.

vimeo

Wyndham Rewards "Wyzard Wyzdom" from David Kruta on Vimeo.

Takeaways:

Hotel rewards programmes can be frustrating to understand and use …

… but creating simple tiers with immediate benefits can incentivise consumers to sign up.

Exciting characters, a la the Wyndham Wyzard or Captain Obvious, are useful for explaining how rewards programmes work and why they’re worthwhile.

Email marketing: Building and nurturing a list

Signing up for a hotel’s rewards programme or securing one of its rooms via a booking engine usually requires an email address, not merely for confirmation but also as a seed for an email marketing campaign.

The hotel industry has honed its emailing practices into a fine art that incorporates exclusive offers, tips and other useful information alongside the more basic details about the customer’s stay.

This email from the St. Michaels Resort in Cornwall includes an enticing “special offer” price along with some beautiful imagery and granular details about amenities (“a hearty Cornish breakfast”):

Via Travel Tripper

More utilitarian and information-rich emails can also work.

This edition of Hotels.com’s newsletter is well-designed for several reasons:

It provides easy access to the site’s “Secret Prices” for members.

Its vertical design is well-optimised for mobile screens, and also provides a quick way to download the service’s app.

It concisely explains the benefits of the rewards programme.

Email marketing should begin with an easy way to sign up on the hotel’s site, like this option from W Hotels, which leads to a registration form requiring an email address and opting in by default to the chain’s email newsletters:

From there, make sure to write concise copy in the emails themselves, include images where appropriate and provide quick access to any details or promotions that recipients can easily take advantage of.

Personalisation, like using the recipient’s first name and customising email for their upcoming destinations, is essential, as is careful tracking of email campaign metrics.

Takeaways:

Email marketing has great synergy with rewards programmes.

Imagery and exclusive offers are important components of these email communications.

Optimise for mobile screens and avoid large chunks of text if possible.

Social media: Rewarding loyalty and engaging influencers

Social media platforms give hotels a powerful set of tools for reaching large audiences with their digital marketing messages, as well as for engaging with customers.

Beyond standard profile pages and hashtag-driven campaigns, some hotels have gotten very creative and hands-on in how they use social media, as in this instance where the official Instagram account of The St. Regis Mexico City reached out to someone about their meal:

View this post on Instagram

Surprising but #wagyu pairs perfectly with a #beefeater #martini #cdmx #mexico #lifewelltravelled #stregismexicocity #spglife

A post shared by Dish & Glass (@dishandglass) on May 10, 2017 at 8:16pm PDT

This shows how rewarding loyalty can take forms other than points redemption – in this case, an exclusive meeting with a mixologist.

Hotels have a keen interest in engaging with guests and travelers on social media, not only to respond to basic inquiries but also to conduct influencer marketing campaigns.

Having a prominent influencer stay at a particular location and post about it can be a much more effective ad for a hotel than a conventional piece of marketing.

Take this photo of influential travel blogger The Travelista staying at Brenners Park-Hotel and Spa:

View this post on Instagram

Waking up in Baden Baden at the beautiful @brennersparkhotel. I’ve known about this hotel for years and always thought it looked timeless and so elegant. Now I’ve been lucky enough to experience it for myself and tick it off my hotel bucket list. How amazing is this princess room? Do you have a bucket list of hotels that you dream of staying in? I’d love to know which ones are on your list

#GermanySimplyInspiring #Spon

A post shared by Jess Gibson | The Travelista (@thetravelista) on Jun 6, 2018 at 11:24pm PDT

It’s a compelling image that says a lot about the hotel’s vibe without using any words.

At the same time, hotels have to be careful about which influencers they partner with, as some of them might not be able to provide enough qualified leads.

Takeaways

Customised social media messages and responses offer unique ways to reward guest loyalty.

Influencer marketing is an effective way to show what a hotel looks like and the clientele that stays at it.

Hotels should conduct proper due diligence about audience suitability before working with specific influencers.

Leaving a lasting impression on hotel guests

The hospitality industry is highly competitive, with many choices that consumers may struggle to choose between without easy-to-follow marketing efforts to help inform their decision-making.

From digital ads to one-off influencer marketing campaigns, hotels should use multiple tactics within a strategy for engaging their current and potential customers.

The most engaged online hotel shoppers are also the least sensitive to price. In other words, providing a unique experience along with the marketing collateral that supports it is essential in driving revenue to a specific hotel location.

We hope these digital marketing examples and takeaways provide a great starting point as you think about how to leave a memorable impression on your guests.

from http://bit.ly/2MILpcW

#content marketing

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beckykingba2a · 6 years ago

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Background Research on Interactive Films and Choice Based Gaming

This is purely research and from websites, it is not my own writing but a compilation of topical broad research on my topic of choice.

Definitions

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/14429/interactivity

“Interactivity is the communication process that takes place between humans and computer software.

The most constant form of interactivity is typically found in games, which need a continuous form of interactivity with the gamer. Database applications and other financial, engineering and trading applications are also typically very interactive.”

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/immerse

“To immerse is to become completely involved in something.”

Interactive Films and Choice Based Gaming

https://www.cracked.com/article_26250_netflixs-making-more-choose-your-own-adventure-style-movies.html

“Despite many, many reviewers deriding interactive movies like Bandersnatch being mere short-term gimmicks, this could indeed be the future. Cinematic history is rife with fads, from hypnotism to smell-o-vision to even a previous brief go at interactive storytelling with the 1995 short Mr. Payback. Like Bandersnatch, all of these were experiments to promote audience engagement (two words that count as foreplay to marketers) but were just too fiddly, flashy, or expensive to be worth the hassle after the novelty wore off.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_film

“The first example of interactive cinema was Kinoautomat (1967). This film was produced before the invention of the laserdisc or similar technology, so a live moderator appeared on stage at certain points to ask the audience to choose between two scenes. The chosen scene would play following an audience vote.

With advances in computer technology, interactive films waned as more developers used fully digitized characters and scenes. This format was popularized by Telltale Games, achieving success in The Walking Dead series of adventure games. These have sometimes been called interactive movies, as while the player can make choices that affect the game's overall narrative, they do not have direct control over characters, making the experience comparable to watching a sequence of cut scenes.”

“By 2016, Netflix had started experimenting with interactive works aimed at children, including an animated version of Puss in Boots and an adaption of Telltale's Minecraft: Story Mode. Netflix's first major interactive film with live-action scenes was Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, a film in the Black Mirror anthology series and released in December 2018. Netflix worked with Black Mirror's creator Charlie Brooker to develop a narrative that took advantage of the interactive format while developing their own tools to improve caching of scenes and management of the film's progression to use on future projects.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/apr/05/onlinesupplement5

“1953: A children's television program called Winky Dink and You, begins the move towards interactive TV. Kids in the US buy a special transparent sheet to place over the screen and, using ordinary crayons, help the show's characters draw things like pathways or tools. The series is discontinued because children begin drawing directly on the TV screen.

1959: First use of telephone call-ins during NBC's Today Show.”

https://www.factinate.com/editorial/choosing-your-own-adventure-the-history-of-interactive-movies/

“So far, in the 50-year history of what we could call interactive movies, there hasn’t really been a ground-breaking success that has changed the way we consume film. The problem seems to be twofold. First, thus far, there have always been limitations to the technology. Second, is that people go to the movies to be absorbed by a story—and when you’re directing the action, it’s impossible to reach that level of complete captivation that creates the ideal movie-going experience.

The integration of 3D technology for movies took a long time—over 50 years for it to become regularly used for theatrical releases. As for interactive films, it’s already taken that long, and so far, no film seems to have ironed out the fundamental issues that plague the medium. Maybe Black Mirror: Bandersnatch will be the first in what we’ll come to know in the future as the interactive movie revolution

Filmmakers have periodically attempted to add interactive elements to their work, long before the Choose Your Own Adventure craze of the 80s. The first example of this was screened at the Expo 67 World’s Fair in Montreal. The film, called Kinoautomat, was directed by Raduz Cincera, and it was presented at the Fair’s Czechoslovak Pavilion. Throughout the film, the action stops, and the viewer is presented with a set of options nine different times. However, regardless of what they choose, the conclusion (shown in a flash-forward scene at the start of the film) is always the same—the main character ends up with his apartment on fire. The director intended the film to satirize the illusion of choice in a democracy.”

https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/dim-future-for-interactive-film

“The key difference between interactive movies and interactive games is that the games operate on a one-on-one basis, while the movies theoretically would have to involve an audience and the rule of the majority. Also, the new kinds of games are intuitive; you click here or there on the screen, discovering what will happen, while with an interactive movie would have to be some sort of menu of choices or plot lines

My feeling is that the two art forms really have little in common, except perhaps for the invitations they issue for us to enter their worlds. When we go to the movies, we enter into the experience of the characters. In some way, we become them. When we play an interactive game, we are the central character, and we determine our own experience.”

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0304_03?needAccess=true

“Does Entertainment Suffer From Interactivity? The Impact of Watching an Interactive TV Movie on Viewers' Experience of Entertainment

Peter Vorderer, Silvia Knobloch &Holger Schramm

To investigate whether interactivity enhances entertainment in interdependence with individual factors, an experiment with a 3 × 2 between subject design was conducted. 427 participants aged between 14 and 49 were randomly assigned to a 30_minute TV movie with three different interactivity levels and two different introductions that should diversify feelings of sympathy toward the protagonist.

The results indicate that individuals with lesser cognitive capacity feel more entertained, that is, they feel more empathic toward the protagonist, feel more suspense, and evaluate the movie more positively when they watch it without any interactivity, in the traditional passive manner. For individuals with greater cognitive capacity, it is just the opposite: They can use interactivity to their advantage. An increase in their entertainment experience was observed as a direct consequence of their being able to influence the plot of the movie.”

https://screenrant.com/black-mirror-bandersnatch-creator-critics-response/

“There’s also some people that are like ‘I don’t wanna make decisions’, ‘I don’t want to do any of it’... well fuck off, then. Do something else! And then there’s some people who think ‘oh, it’s too simple as a game’ or ‘games have done this before’ – well this isn’t on a gaming platform, it’s on Netflix. I’m well aware of what a computer game is, thanks." – Charlie Brooker, creator of Black Mirror

Netflix ought not to forget that its true power rests in its ability to reach subscribers in the comfort of their own homes, and the popularity of Bandersnatch, irregular format and all, perfectly exemplifies this. Without its interactivity, Bandersnatch would likely have never been propelled into the spotlight it enjoys now, but the very thought of a theater audience frequently brandishing their too-bright smartphones on public wifi at a theatrical screening of the film should be enough to send a shiver up any moviegoer's spine.”

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/library/interactive-titles-on-netflix/

“Not all devices support interactive titles. Chromecasts are the most notable devices not support it as well as most of the Apple devices too.”

https://www.popsugar.co.uk/entertainment/More-Interactive-Movies-Netflix-45666858

“Bloomberg was the first to report Netflix's plans for interactive programming back in October 2018. The reports at the time identified Black Mirror as likely the first big project to test the interactive waters, but they also included indications that this would only be the first of multiple projects with a similar approach. "[Netflix] has closed a deal for at least one more live-action project and is negotiating the rights to others," claimed a pair of anonymous sources in the Bloomberg article.

Even the Netflix app is getting on board, expanding for the capabilities to handle the different technical requirements of streaming a program with multiple options. Per Variety, the app was restructured to pre-cache two possibilities at once, rather than just one linear item, to ensure smooth streaming throughout the process.

All of these facts seem to point toward a future where Netflix does produce more interactive programming. The company's vice president of product, Todd Yellin, seemed to think as much when speaking to Variety, alluding to plans to experiment with other genres (such as romances, comedies, and horror movies) in the interactive space. "[Black Mirror] just happens to be a great audience for the first one. . . . We think we are onto something that could be really exciting," he said.

The rumors that Netflix was heading into the interactive programming niche first started circling early in 2018, thanks to a partnership with Telltale Games, a video game company. Although word spread quickly that Netflix might be trying to adapt the choose-your-own-path style of video games to television programming, the questions quickly hit a bump in the road when Telltale went defunct in the Fall of 2018. Its interactive adventure Minecraft: Story Mode (also a collaboration with Netflix) was the final project from the company.”

https://variety.com/2019/digital/asia/netflix-doubling-down-on-interactive-series-bandersnatch-success-1203161088/

Netflix is doubling down on interactive series after the global success of “Black Mirror” spinoff “Bandersnatch,” the streaming giant’s VP of product, Todd Yellin, said in Mumbai on Tuesday. Yellin was delivering a keynote presentation at the 20th edition of media and entertainment conference FICCI-Frames.

“It’s a huge hit here in India, it’s a huge hit around the world, and we realized, wow, interactive storytelling is something we want to bet more on,” Yellin said. “We’re doubling down on that. So expect over the next year or two to see more interactive storytelling. And it won’t necessarily be science fiction, or it won’t necessarily be dark. It could be a wacky comedy. It could be a romance, where the audience gets to choose – should she go out with him or him.”

#report

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vbucksps42367345-blog · 6 years ago

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talk-time-live · 6 years ago

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TALKTIMELIVE.COM EXCLUSIVE with YEO: by Daxavier Josiah

37 years game developer Vadim Gilyazetdinov from Moscow, Russia, goes by the name “YEO”, which is a nickname he came up with in his school days while achieving a high score in a racing game. The name also pays homage to his appreciation and fandom for the Japanese culture.

YEO has a passion and ambition to bring his narrative to life in the form of his favorite fandom which is video games. This led YEO (and his team) to create one of the most compelling retro 2D open world games out now for STEAM and recently Nintendo Switch called “The friends of RINGO ISHIKAWA.” which has received much praise by fans and media. I had the opportunity of talking with YEO about the creation of this title and more more.

DAX: Where did your journey begin as a game developer?

YEO: I wanted to be connected with game development since University (I have a master’s degree in chemistry) but I didn’t know how to code and I couldn’t draw (I believed that I was good at writing dialogues though) so I applied to some Russian game development companies for any minor junior role they had but they just ignored me. It was no wonder since I hadn’t any work experience.

I started to work at some government company and in 2006 I was introduced to Game Maker 6.1 by my colleague and close friend with whom we run first Russian Nekketsu fan-site. And I made some beat-em-up action with Kunio-Kun sprites in a week ) And it was like whole new world opened for me )

But I never thought that I could do commercial games. I was just having fun with Nekketsu of Mighty Final Fight sprites. I made some small games with them for my local web friends and for myself and most importantly for the process of doing it. Since I don’t believe in result too much, you could achieve it or not, but the process is what you got anyway, so if it was fun and interesting that’s more than enough.

DAX: How many people did it take to develop this game as well as how long did it take to develop it?

YEO: The Steam made possible for small developers to be introduced to the large audience. And when my fellow developer passed Greenlight and then successfully released a game in 2015 I started to think of doing the same. I had quite good and stable job as a team leader at the Moscow IT Government Department so I could afford to hire an artist at last. I never thought of it before though, that you can just hire somebody.

So, I started to look for an artist. Prototype of the game was ready. All these years I tried different battle mechanics with Nekketsu sprites, and literally honed my skills little by little. You can see how Ringo looked back then:

youtube

I posted some job description on game dev forums and it started (“your game is shit”, “you’re a moron” “you’re paying too low” “you should better be doing some Russian aesthetics”, “it’s a dumb clone”, “nobody could do 60 backgrounds alone”, “you should hire a team”) It really was hard to get by. I read all these insults and recommendations for 2-3 months and then suddenly one man sent me a really beautiful background and I thought “no kidding? It could be a BG for my game?” That’s how we started to work with Artem “Wedmak2” Belov, a man who made my game even possible.

Then I had to recruit a characters artist. And it was another 2 months of hell. And I almost lost hope already. I asked every real live person I knew who could draw a straight line besides web searching and all my friends refused. I even asked my 58 years old father and he opened some image redactor, looked at pixels, closed and said no.

I was walking with my mother one day and she asked about the game, how the things going, and I said “mom, I can’t find an artist, please, talk to dad, he doesn’t work, he has nothing to do, maybe he can try again, it’s not that hard” and she said, “I’ll see what I can do”. I must say that my father is no artist. But he’s very talented in different areas so I believed that he could handle it if he wanted to. And couple of days later I installed him the graphics gale and taught him how to choose colors and place dots. And little by little, step by step, he drew around 1000 frames for Ringo in next 2 years.

I tried to work with musicians also but we couldn’t get along. First musicians wrote 3 tracks that I love though, and they wrote final theme among then (the best track in the game), the band named “indian&fox”, very talented guys, it’s sad that they couldn’t do whole soundtrack. So, in the end, Royalty Free Tracks saved me. It was really months of listening and choosing tracks and it was really time-consuming (I was doing it at night usually when I was too tired to code) but I’m proud of the result. I also don’t care about them been royalty free. Almost any Tarantino’s soundtrack is Royalty Free.

And it was guys who did translations but it could be too long to tell about them. I want to mention Dmitry Ostrozhskiy above all who did English translation. And also Guillaume Veer, and Indienova team for Chinese localization and Misa Sekiguchi Webb, Ueda M. and Chie Koizumi for Japanese. If I started to name one I can’t forget others.

And, I had 2 web friends who discussed with me everything and gave their opinions and insights all these years. I consider them as a team. stray_stoat and Mr.Chelnoque. They were there for me anytime I needed them. And while they didn’t actually write dialogues or code or something like that’s a core of my team. It’s really hard to go such distance on your own. Only some hardcore guys like Eric Barone is capable of that.

So I was doing Ringo and when I was watching some movies like “La-La Land” or “Joy” or any other dream related stuff I couldn’t look in their eyes cause they asked me “all right you had a dream and you found out what you really love and you’re good at it but have you done everything you could? Did you give it all? Did you risk any?” And I couldn’t say “yes” to any of them. But it’s the life without regrets that give you real freedom.

When I said to my wife that I had to quit the job she wasn’t really happy about it. But she said “Do what you gotta do. We’ll manage somehow.” I didn’t have to quit my job to release the game. I could easily release it while still working; I had a lot of free time there. But I was a casino gambler in my youth days so I knew that you need to bet something if you want to win any. And you better risk high if you want a jackpot). So my career was the only thing I could bet actually.

DAX: The friends of Ringo Ishikawa is a very ambitious and free-thinking experience with no rules and direction. Can you talk about what led to this form of gameplay?

I usually reflect on everything I do so when I reflected on my gaming experience I noticed that I don’t play to win a game. I play to live in a game. I played it like this since ZX Spectrum’s Saboteur for example

I never passed 3 first screens in the game since it was awfully controlled and dogs killed you by touching but you could be a ninja in it. In the first scene a ninja sails on the boat, then he enters some building and then dogs and enemies appear). But I was pretending that I was a wounded ninja who’s going to a suicide mission. And I was sailing in the boat like in a movie. So I was walking fearlessly and dying like a warrior.

And I played almost any game like that. And on NES my favorites was Technos Japan’s Nekketsu series. All of them, but especially Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (River City Ransom) and Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu. You could live there. It was like early GTA game. Free roam/open city, usual daily activities. You couldn’t die also.

And you had all other Nekketsu games as a part of one big Universe. So you could live in DNM, then switch to Ike Ike and play some hockey, then go fighting in NKD. I wished there was one big Nekketsu game where you could live and participate in different activities without changing cartridges. And I was designing one on the paper when I was at University. Just for fun. Just for “what if I could do a game someday”. And I wrote to notebook “You can smoke by pressing a button”. It was 2002 or 2004.

DAX: This has the definite essence of the classic 8-Bit series RIVER CITY RANSOM. Where there any other games that you were inspired by in the making of this title?

Beside Technos games I was heavily inspired by Shenmue of course. That was another game of my dream. Martial Arts, Japan, snow flying right in the face.

Another obvious inspiration is Persona games, especially 3rd one. I didn’t like Tartarus part (though JRPG is my favorite genre) but the school part was perfect.

My personal best (is) Final Fantasy 7. I believe it’s a perfect game and it inspires me every time I even think of it. You won’t see exact influences from it, but it’s there. For example, you could buy a villa later in the game (FF7). And by the time you could buy it you actually don’t need it. But it was something special when you just entered (the) menu and it said “Cloud’s Villa” in location’s name. Or you could hit a heavy bag in the basement. It didn’t do anything. You just could hit it. And that’s all.

DAX: Where there any coming of age/gang related movies, anime, or manga that inspired the creation of this game as well or maybe some past experiences growing up?

YEO: I think that everything you have seen and read and played is inspiring you and forming your sense of style and aesthetics. I was a delinquent myself, and a gambler addict, I used to box and kickbox and I’m still training, actually almost all Ringo movements are redrawn (not rotoscoped) by my father from my photos. So I wanted to share some personal feelings with players and I knew what I was talking about hard way. So I wasn’t look up to any manga or a movie actually. But I read and watched a lot, and I gave homage to some of my favorite works, Ringo can read some of my favorite books in the game.

Between youth gang movies my personal best is Korean “Once upon a time in high school”. That’s a real masterpiece, real masculine movie. I was aiming at this level of quality but I didn’t reach it. This movie is on another level. I hope that Ringo can still be compared to it.

DAX: You are obviously a fan of retro games, what were some of your favorites growing up?

YEO: I’m still playing retro games actually. I don’t really like new games and I hadn’t completed a game in 5 or 6 years. Last game that blew my mind was Way of Samurai 3. It’s a really awesome game. I didn’t like 4th game in the series and didn’t play first ones. But this game is something else. I also played a lot of EA Fight Night series, all of them are good and it’s a pity they abandoned the franchise. That’s my favorite “next-gen” games.

I like many PS one games, mostly JRPG: FF7, FF8, Xenogears, Wild Arms etc. There was some interesting CAPCOM beat'em up on PS2 I can recommend: Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance and Shinobido Imashime of course.

For real retro games, I still play first Streets of Rage from time to time, I beat it 3 or 4 times some weeks ago on Switch. My favorite straight beat'em up is Mighty Final Fight on NES though. I really love this game, it’s a gem. Also, I like Bucky O'Hare, Mitsumi ga Tooru, Double Dragon 2, Duck Tales. That’s my favorite on NES. Beside Nekketsu of course.

DAX: There are multiple ways to play “The friends of Ishikawa.” Is there one true way to play this game or did you have the idea of letting the player go to any direction they want and have different results?

I’m really tired of modern games that take you by the hand. If there’s a mini-map in a game you don’t look at the backgrounds, you play it on the minimap, so any game comes down to some white triangle moves to green circle which activates a cut scene, richly animated and directed, voiced over, cinema-like. Then you gain control over the character again and go to another green circle, sometimes you mash buttons between. I drop games like that in half an hour regardless the quality and graphics and wrinkles on the face when chars do smile.

I also tired of tutorial messages on any action. So I made only the basic ones in my game. So it’s easy to pick up like older games where any tutorials weren’t and there were 2-3 action buttons and you just tried everything. And I think its fun. It’s a kind of exploration. You try different things and see outcome and you investigate and when you discover something you really enjoy it and you feel smart and by doing it you (are) starting to feel connected to a character.

We argued about all this with mr.chelnoque and stray_stoat but I believed in my vision and positive reviews proved my point. I knew that there’d be many players disappointed that the game doesn’t give you any direction and you don’t know what to do etc. But I also knew that some players would love it for the same reason. And that goes for multiple endings as well. I considered different endings of course and at some point, it was even “A friend of Ringo Ishikawa” so you had to generate your character who was Ringo’s best friend from childhood and you could more role-play in the game, it was a date-sim part also. But then I decided to tell this exact story about this exact character with the exact ending. So some things just fell off. It’s not in Ringo’s character to have multiple girlfriends for example, so I gave up on the dating sim. And there were more sacrifices I had to do.

As for the right way to play it, on the contrary, I wanted players to play their own but to stay in a character. That’s why you can’t rob your classmates, for example, and you still have to fight in some scenes cause Ringo is a gang leader, after all, you can’t turn him into a complete nerd.

The whole game came from one final scene and I designed it backwards actually, I wanted players to really feel that very scene. I don’t want to spoil it though for those who didn’t complete the game. So I wanted payers to live in the game and to feel the ending if they care to complete it.

DAX: What’s next for you? Is there any chance we will see a sequel following The Life of RINGO?

YEO: I’d rather not do it and I have some reasons for it.

First of all, I’ve said what I wanted with this game. I also wanted to make a game with a generated character where you could really do what you want and have different endings (like Way of Samurai for example) but if I expand Ringo’s Universe his story could fade. And I don’t want to sacrifice it.

Secondly, it’s really common to make a sequel to a well-received game. And while it’s easy it could turn into creative chains, I want to be free. That’s why I quit my job also. To do what I want to and not what is best for business or others.

That’s why my second game will be quite short also. I understand that some players have great expectations of my games but it also can drain creativity, fear of failure. So again I decided on what to do next just by listening to myself. "What kind of game you want to do now? What inspires you?” And when I captured setting and gameplay it turned out that I can’t do a long game with it. But gameplay is really good and I have one interesting idea also, and some thoughts I want to share. So I decided on what could be good for this idea to be properly told.

I want to try to stay creatively free for as long as I can.

I almost ready with this game, but Artem Belov (who’s in charge of BG again and he’s doing astounding work again, even better than in Ringo), he got married and got an office job so he (has a) lack of time now, and he draws slowly. And while I’m waiting for him I started to work on another project but it’s a secret for now.

Thanks to YEO for taking the time to chat with me on such a great game. Be sure to check out “The friends of RINGO ISHIKAWA” available now on STEAM and Nintendo Switch (and Nintendo E-Shop).

#nintendo #nintendo switch #the friends of ringo ishikawa #ringo ishikawa #yeo #games #video games #retro gaming #game developers #indy games #steam #anime #comics #manga #movies #Vadim Gilyazetdinov

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amamblog · 8 years ago

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An Interview with Wang Guangyi (in English and Chinese)

In the current AMAM exhibition Conversations: Past and Present in Asia and America, a painting titled Chanel (below) by Chinese contemporary artist Wang Guangyi is on view. To demonstrate Wang’s “conversations” with art and artists from the past, Chanel is paired with an anonymous propaganda poster from the Cultural Revolution, Thoroughly Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius!, and a lithograph titled Crak! by Roy Lichtenstein, one of the leading figures in the Pop Art movement in the US.

Wang Guangyi first gained wide critical acclaim with his Great Criticism series, which included Chanel. The works juxtaposed propaganda imagery from the Cultural Revolution with brand names and motifs from Western advertising, which were flooding into China during the Reform Era of the 80s and 90s. Like Pop Art, Wang appropriated elements of mass-produced commercial advertising; however, by adding exaggerated, heroic figures from political posters he slyly suggests that advertising and propaganda are equally manipulative. Recently, Zimeng Xiang, the AMAM Student Curatorial Assistant in Asian Art, interviewed the artist.

* Below, you can find a transcription of the interview in Chinese.

Wáng Guǎngyì 王广义 (Chinese, b. 1956), Chanel, from the Great Criticism series, 1994, oil on canvas, 149.2 x 119.7 cm. Oberlin Friends of Art Fund, 2001.20. Allen Memorial Art Museum

Q: The shift from your early works in Northern Art Group to the Great Criticism series was extraordinary. What was the change in your opinions on art that caused such a huge shift? What triggered such a change in your mind?

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Post-Classical: Gospel of Matthew, 1986, Oil on canvas, 100cm x 100cm. (Fig. 1)

A: My works created before the shift of my focus had almost nothing to do with my life experience. They were just my imaginary issues: the Post-Classical series (1986) was my own correction to the classical culture and the Frozen North Pole series (1985) was about an imaginary “northern culture”. Not until I started painting Mao (1988,1989) did my artistic practice begin to mature; not until then did I realize what was really connected to my life experience and my educational background.

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Waving Mao Zedong, 1989, Oil on canvas, 150cm x 120cm. (Fig. 2)

Apart from that, the formation of the Great Criticism series was somehow accidental as well. Despite the poor artistic qualities of propaganda images made by amateur painters during the cultural revolution, I used to find in them a unique kind of power which I wished to exploit in my works. I enlarged and copied one of those images of workers, peasants and soldiers onto a canvas, setting it in the corner, and had no idea how to deal with it. Several days later, I happened to have a chance to drink a can of Coke. This was in those days when lots of Western consumer products (such as Coca-Cola and Marlboro cigarettes) had just entered China, but coke was still a “luxurious” drink. Incidentally, I set the Coke can on the ground, suddenly coming up with some interesting ideas.

Since the Great Criticism series, my attention shifted from the form to the imagery itself. The form is entangled with art historical contexts and elements of individualization, which I was trying to get rid of. I tried to free art from the hands of artists, to make it possess more power—the power that came from people as well as the leader. In the Post-Classical series, with the aid of old masters I told a myth about art history; in Mao’s portraits, with the aid of photography and printing presses I told a myth about the leader; in the Great Criticism, with the aid of people I told a myth about people.

Q: The Bold outlines and exaggerated figures of the Great Criticism series bring to mind a series of Cultural Revolution-era posters, such as “Thoroughly Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius!” (ca. 1970), that are themselves reminiscent of the work of the Modern Woodcut Movement of the 1920s-1940s. Were you referencing either of these in your series, or Cultural Revolution imagery more broadly?

A: Yes, I was referencing the Cultural Revolution-era posters. Basically the prototypes of the Great Criticism series are such imagery created by the “people”. I was juxtaposing these two kinds of imagery coming from different eras—figures of workers, peasants and soldiers, and images from imported advertisements that had permeated contemporary life.

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Great Criticism: Coca-Cola, 1990-93, Oil on canvas, 200cm x 200cm. (Fig. 3)

Q: How did you feel about the widespread propaganda posters during the 60s and the 70s when you were young? What was the impact that the swelling consumer culture brought to your life in the 90s? How did you come up with the combination of propaganda images and Western commercial advertisements?

A: The cultural revolution lasted only for ten years, during which Chinese people subverted politics, as well as history and art. We lived in a political metaphysics. Elimination was regarded as creation. Chaos was believed to be order. The Cultural Revolution is usually understood as a mythmaking movement, but I consider it more like a kind of Dadaism. This is Mao’s political metaphysics—a unity of mythmaking and Dada. Under the influence of such metaphysics, we embraced the negative, with an unprecedented audacity, as if they are actually the positive. A particular image system was built when the practice of “Great Criticism” was invented. As the Cultural Revolution ended and Mao’s utopia vanished, commodity fetishism became popular in China where true religious belief was submerged. Chinese speedily switched to another image system—a system about signs of consumerism. Everything but my cognitive system was changing dramatically. I was trying to look for a meaning behind the conflicts between my haunting memories and this burgeoning new imagery.

Q: The whole series of Great Criticism includes both prints and oil paintings. Is there any difference in ideas between works made in these two kinds of media?

A: They express the same idea, just different in the ways they could be spread.

Q: Could you tell us about how you created those strings of numbers on the painting Chanel and other special techniques you applied?

A: I stamped those numbers. I also used an altered traditional glazing technique.

Q: Besides the Great Criticism series, many of your other works, such as the sculpture series Materialist made in around 2002 and the painting series Methodology of People’s War made in 2004, also make reference to images from woodblock prints made in the Great Leap Forward or Cultural Revolution period. Why are you interested in employing images and visual effects originally generated for reproducible media in your works that were made in non-reproducible media?

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, Materialists, 2001-2002, Sculpture (Fiberglass and Millet), Approximately 180cm x 120cm x 60cm. (Fig.4)

A: There was a transformation happening there when I modulated and recreated the existing prints. Through such a process of transformation, artists would amplify or even distort the original meanings of the material. My Great Criticism series tended to flatten and simplify (the source material) by removing those medium tones in colors and shadings. It might relate back to the original image style of “Great Criticism”, which was redolent of woodblock prints, but I indeed intentionally pursued that kind of effect in my later works. Plenty of Cultural Revolution imagery, including some of those propaganda images, retained more or less some sense of space; those were created by professional artists, in a Soviet art style. However, they simplified the forms to make images speak to people. I call that a thorough conceptualization. Interestingly, it is exactly those conceptualized images that possessed a unique power.

Q: Because of your Great Criticism series, many critics and art historians consider you as the founder of Chinese Political Pop art. What do you think of such an identity (or rather, label)? Did it have any unexpected effect on your later artistic practice? Do you think that it might restrict the ways viewers read your works?

A: Of course, my Great Criticism series should belong to the category of Pop art, whereas my Pop art has probably included some issues related to politics and ideologies. Pop art is defined as a popular art concerning mass culture, but to a country like China, the most “popular” would be politics.

It certainly had some impact (on my later artistic practice), both positive and negative, but this was not something that could be determined according to my individual will. My works and my words became productions of the world of pop as soon as they left me. Maybe that is the reason why contemporary art approaches everyone’s life so closely. Contemporary art seems to be a reconstruction of the synchronic experience of the public. It involves everyone and forces them to participate, like a huge “game”. At first glance, they are unsure about what exactly this game is, in the same way as they are about the evening news on television. But one thing is clear: contemporary art always reminds the public of a most basic matter—both news and games lead us to real life.

Q: In a previous interview, you mentioned that “the core of art is something spiritual”. Could you choose one word to describe the “spirit” of contemporary Chinese art? What do you think is the biggest difference between the “spirit” of contemporary Chinese art and that of ’85 New Wave?

A: The only way I could talk about ’85 New Wave is from my own experience of it. History is just a random product. When we were actively participating in ’85 New Wave, we had no idea that it would be eventually remembered this way after thirty years. What’s more valuable and substantial is the process of re-thinking the spirits and thoughts of those individuals involved in this piece of history. As far as I’m concerned, it was still a great period of time back in the 1980s, when my numerous dreams and imaginings about art were constructed during those salad days of mine. ’85 New Wave offered me a starting point—a point that related to my feelings about Shamanism in the northern area where I grew up—of my artist’s career. All those major themes of Shamanism—pantheism, mysteries, agnosticism and indeterminacy—still mean a lot to me. Today I still believe that we are agnostic about art, and what artists express are no doubt some kinds of thoughts—but such thoughts are indeterminate.

Q: Most Western audiences nowadays as well as Chinese students of my generation would probably not respond to your “Great Criticism” series as you expected since they did not have the same experience that people of your generation had during the Cultural Revolution, either as participants or foreign spectators. What kind of role would you like your work to play at AMAM, a Western academic art museum? What kind of impact would you like it to have on students of my generation?

A: Essentially, China is a somewhat utopian country. In its long history, the shifts in state power influenced people profoundly. Nowadays such influences are gradually fading away from the memories of younger generations, but something remains the same—something that has never changed except that the way it happens may be different now. Since the early years during which I was born, I’ve had strong feelings that the state was trying to brainwash people with its utopian ideas through propaganda imagery. Meanwhile, when I finally grew up and became an artist, I found that in some Western, developed countries, the state power was used to stimulate people’s ardor for commodity fetishism. As an artist having these two mechanisms superposed, I stood in the intermediate realm, presenting the result to audiences of different ages from different places. As for the role I would like my work to play at a Western academic art museum, I wish that it could guide audiences to learn about issues I’ve been interested in, issues that essentially transcend the concept of nation and time.

Wang Guangyi 王廣義, The Last Supper, 2011, Oil on canvas, 1600cm × 400cm. (Fig. 5)

Q: Images of Western political or religious leaders, as well as Christian icons, started to emerge in your works after 2010. What are your major ideas behind these recent works? Earlier you said that you are more interested in expressing collective notions rather than personal feelings in your works, and that your works are usually created by “the public’s hands”. What are the collective notions that you would like to convey in these recent works?

A: Those works are from the New Religion series. About this series, earlier I said, “The presence or absence of various rituals, icons, relics and commandments, etc., are not something we are able to control. We can only obtain a sense of history’s existence through the figurative reproduction of memories. We looked at everything, but from the backside. We observed the existing human civilization, but with a veil covering on it. Since our childhood, we’ve been exposed to all kinds of things by accident. Those things are like negative films that will re-emerge once they are activated, again, by accident, at some point. Today everyone’s life is affected by such “negative films” carrying a certain density of time and memories which would influence the way we see the world.” What I mean by “collective notion” is that my works rarely involve issues that only I, an individual, have been faced with; instead, they concern issues that most of us have been faced with.

Q: Could you tell us about what you are working on currently (or where you are among different stages of the art making process)?

A: Currently, I’m preparing for a show that will take place in Wuhan this November (2016), and the other one in Prague next year (2017). Both of them will present my works from different time periods as well as those made most recently.

Regarding my recent thoughts on art making, I’m trying to find the source of all my artistic practice. Last year (2015), I made a new installation The Origin of the Gods through which I connected other works of mine, including those made in the early period. This work could be related back to my childhood experience in the northern area. When northern kids are sick, they would probably be sent to a shaman instead of a doctor. I thought this was nothing more than superstition when I was young, but as I grew up, I found that behind such a phenomenon there is a particular significance of those original religions, which interested me a lot.

Such habits came from the legacy of Northern Shamanism which originated from Northern China, Northern Russia and some European areas, but mainly Northern China. To some extent, what we are faced with are so-called “religious” matters—Buddhism and Christianity undoubtedly came from foreign areas; only Shamanism is indigenous. Curious about it, I wanted to find its root, the most basic thing about our spiritual life.

What that is in my works, in which I tried to find that “root”, is exactly an attitude of Pantheism—an emphasis on accidental encounters rather than assigning everything their unique values. As I’ve mentioned before, if someone was tripped up by a rock when walking at night and the next morning he found that the rock had actually saved his life by keeping him from falling down the cliff, this rock would be his savior—from a Pantheist’s perspective. This sounds very interesting to me. Pantheism regards everything around you, such as rocks, ropes, crows and other things we could encounter in our daily life, as potential saviors; accompanying inadvertent circumstances, it determines whether this particular thing would show such a value and meaning. If we look at Western civilization from a Pantheist’s perspective, we would find that this rock, in absolute terms, is the same as what Nietzsche has said in Ecce Homo.

Interview transcription in Chinese:

王广义专访

向子濛 Zimeng Xiang

从您“北方艺术群体”时期的作品到“大批判”系列是一个非常大的转变，在这个过程中您对艺术的看法发生了怎样的转变？是怎样的契机促使了您的艺术观念发生如此大的转变？

在这之前我的东西应该说和我的生活经验都是没关系的，是我想象出的一个问题。“后古典”是我对古典文化的修正，“北方极地”是我想象出的一个北方文化，实际上和我的��验和我的生活，和我整个的教育背景都没有关系，实际上我真正成熟是从画毛泽东这件事开始的，我接下去就更明确了，和我经验相关，和我艺术整个教育背景相关，大概是这种产物。《大批判》的产生，除了这个之外，也具有偶然性，那个年代，大量的西方商品刚刚进入中国，像可口可乐、万宝路烟，而文革期间大量非专业的人画的一些很幼稚的报头来表达他们的态度，从绘画语言上非常拙，形也不准，但确实有一种力量，我也想找到怎么来使用它，我先是把其中一个工农兵的《大批判》报头打格放大成一米乘一米，画到画布上原样临摹下来，放到墙角儿，好几天也不知道怎么处理。很偶然，在那个喝可乐挺奢侈的年代，我偶然喝了一罐可乐，把可乐罐放到地上，突然觉得很有意思。

从大批判开始，我的注意力从图式转到了图像。图式有太多艺术史和个性化成分。我想努力地摆脱它，我想把艺术从艺术家的手中解放出来，让它更具有力量。力量来自人民，来自领袖。我创作了毛泽东和大批判。在后古典那里，我借古代大师说话，讲了一个艺术史的神话。在毛泽东那里，我借照相术和印刷机说话，讲了一个领袖的神话。在大批判那里，我借人民说话，我讲了一个人民的神话。

“大批判”系列中夸张的粗线条人物形象让我们不禁联想到文革时期的宣传海报，例如（AMAM收藏中的）“彻底批判林彪孔老二”。而这些宣传海报本身又令人回忆起20年代至40年代的新木刻运动。在“大批判”系列作品中，您是否有暗示这两者中的其一，或是广义上的文革图像？

和前者（宣传海报）是有关系的，或者说我的《大批判》作品的原始图像，就来源于前者这些“人民”创造的图像，我将这些工农兵的形象与今天我们生活中的那些引进的、渗透到大众生活中去的商品广告图像相结合，将这两种来源于不同时代的图像因素并置。

六、七十年代时随处可见的带有宣传性质的图像曾带给当时的您怎样一种感受？九十年代至今的消费主义文化对您的生活又产生了怎样的冲击？为什么会想到把这两者联系在一起呢？

文革只有短短的十年的时间。十年中，中国人颠覆了政治，颠覆了历史和艺术。中国人生活在玄学政治中，破坏就是创造，天下大乱达到天下大治。人们常说文革是一种造神运动，依我看来，文革更像是一种达达运动。造神和达达的统一，就是毛泽东的政治玄学。在这种玄学的影响下，中国人以一种空前的魄力，相信负面的东西更具有积极性，他们发明了大批判，建立了一套特殊的图像系统。随着文革的结束，随着毛泽东乌托邦的破灭，拜物教在信仰空缺的中国盛行。在图像上，中国人迅速地接受了另一套系统，一套关于消费的标识和数字系统。社会的一切都在剧烈地转换，我的认知系统却未能适应。残留的记忆和新兴的图像发生了冲突。我试图在我的艺术中却寻找这种冲突背后的意义。

整个“大批判”系列中既包含版画作品，也包含油画作品，使用这两类不同的媒介所创作的作品背后的意义有什么不同吗？

意义是一样的，只是这两种媒介的传播方式不一样。

请问Chanel这幅作品上一串串的数字是怎样弄上去的？您在创作这幅作品时还使用了其他什么特别的方法/技巧吗？

上面的数字是我用印章印上去的，同时我还使用了改变了的传统罩染方式。

“大批判”系列之后，您的许多其他作品似乎也借用了大跃进或文革时期版画中的人物形象，例如02年左右的雕塑作品“唯物主义者”系列，以及04年的作品“人民战争方法论”系列。为什么会对使用不可复制的媒介（油画/雕塑）来再现原本由可复制媒介（版画）所产生的图像这种创作方式产生兴趣？

我对已有的印刷品进行再加工、创作，是一个转换的关系。艺术家通过转换，把原来那个东西的意义放大了，甚至也可能是扭曲了。我的《大批判》倾向于平面化，逐渐去掉了中间调子，不论是素描关系还是色彩关系，越来越倾向简单。这虽然与那些大批判的原始风格有关，那些东西有木刻的感觉，但我在后来的画面上一直有意追求这种效果。文革中的不少画面还是有一种立体感和空间感，基本上是苏联艺术的风格样式，还是出于专业艺术家之手，即便是一些大批判的报头画，也是他们画的，但当他们在向人民述说的时候，他们在形式上就做了简化了的处理，我把这种简化称之为“彻底的概念化”。有趣是，��恰是这种概念化的图像，有一种特别的力量。

您因为“大批判”系列而被许多评论家及艺术史学者公认为中国政治波普艺术的创始人，请问您怎么看待这样一种身份（或说是一种标签）？这种标签是否对您之后整体的艺术创作产生了影响？您是否认为这从某种意义上来说束缚了观众对您的作品的解读？

当然，我的“大批判”毫无疑问应当属于波普艺术的范畴，只是我的波普艺术可能包含了政治和意识形态的一些问题。波普的定义是一种流行的通俗艺术，但是对中国这样一个国家而言，最流行的应当是政治。

影响肯定是有的，有正面的也有负面的。但有些事情是不能以个人意志来决定的，我的作品和我所说的话一经离开我，就成为一个波普产物了，也许，正因为这样才使得当代艺术逼近了每一个人的生活。其实就当代艺术来讲，它似乎应当是一种公众共时性经验的一种重组的实现，它涉及到所有人，它是一场大型的“游戏”，它迫使公众参加进去。从表面上看，公众似乎弄不清楚这个游戏的真面目，这有点像公众在晚间观看电视新闻节目一样。有一点是清楚的，那就是当代艺术总是在提醒公众注意一个最基本的问题：新闻和游戏引导我们走向真实的生活。

您曾经在一次采访中说过，“艺术的核心是精神性的东西”，那么您认为当下的中国当代艺术的“精神”，与85新潮时期的“精神”相比，最大的不同是什么？如果请您用一个词来形容中国当代艺术的“精神”，那将会是什么？

我只能从自己经历的85去真实的谈论这段历史，任何一件事情成为历史其实是非常偶然的，就像我们当时参与到其中，不知道这会成为历史，如今三十年过去了，我知道这是历史了。在这个过程中，回到参与历史具体的个人精神思想的历程可能更具有价值、更真实。以我个人而言，我仍然觉得80年代是一个美好的年代，我的青春年华是在那个年代度过的，我的无数梦想、无数对艺术的想象是在那个年代建立的。 85为我的艺术道路提供了一个起点，那个起点和我小时候生活在北方对萨满教的感觉有关，萨满教的泛神论、神秘感、不可知、不确定这些词语对于今天的我来说依然有巨大影响，我今天仍然认为艺术是不可知的，艺术家所表达的毫无疑问是一种思想，但是这个思想是不确定的。

大多数西方观众以及正在海外留学的这一代中国学生由于并没有您那一代人年轻时的经历（不论是作为参与者还是西方旁观者），对您作品中的政治元素都无法产生感同身受的体验，很可能会对您的作品产生一些您预料之外的回应。您希望自己的作品在AMAM这样的西方学术性美术馆中扮演一个什么样的角色？您希望您的作品对我们这一代的学生产生什么样的影响？

本质上讲，中国是一个乌托邦国家，在它漫长的历史进程中，国家权力的变化对人构成了很深的影响。虽然在今天，这些影响也在慢慢改变、淡出了更为年轻的一代的记忆。但有些东西是恒定的，其实从未改变，只是方式不一样了而已。从我出生的年代开始，我深深感受到国家权力将“乌托邦”的想法通过宣传画的方式对人进行“洗脑”。当我漫长的成长为一个成年人，成为一个艺术家之后，我发现，在西方一些发达国家的国家权力在利用商品的商标设计去刺激人的“拜物”的热情。我作为艺术家，我把两种东西重合在一起，我站在中间地带，把它呈现给不同地域不同时代的观众。要说我希望我的作品在西方学术性美术馆扮演什么样的角色，那我希望通过我的艺术所呈现的问题，能够引导观众去了解我所感兴趣的问题，这些问题在本质上又应该超越于国家和时间的概念。

2010年之后，您的画面中开始出现许多现实中的西方政治、宗教领导人以及基督教圣像，可以谈谈这些作品背后的想法吗？早些时候您曾说过“我不太适合表达自己的很私密的感受，这不是我的强项，我更适合表达公共的概念……我的艺术常常是借人民之手来完成的”那么在这些作品中，您想传达的是怎样的公共概念呢？

你说的这些作品，是《新宗教》的系列，关于这些作品，我曾经说过：“各种仪式、偶像、遗物、戒律等是否在场，是我们所不能掌控的。我们只能靠‘记忆的表象复制’来获取一种历史的存在感。我们看到的所有东西，都是在背后。我们观看人类已有的文明，都是隔了一层的。从小时候开始，我们接触到的一切东西都是偶然的。这些东西像“底片”一样在我们心中存在，在某一时刻它们又被“偶然性”激活，就会浮现出来。我们今天人的生活，都受到“底片”的影响。而“底片”所承载的时间和记忆的厚度，又会影响我们观看世界的方式。”我所说的公共，是我的创作极少指涉我作为一个个体所面对的问题，而更关心更为普遍的“我们”所面对的问题。

愿意透露一下近期在准备什么样的作品，或是正处于一个什么样的创作阶段吗？

目前我正在准备我今年（2016）11月份在武汉的美术馆的展览，还有就是明年（2017）在布拉格的美术馆的展览，这些两个展览都将呈现我各个阶段包括最新的创作。

另外，我近期在创作上的思考，就是我试图要找到我所有的创作的一个根源。去年（2015），我创作了新的装置作品《众神的起源》，通过它将我其他的作品，包括早期的作品串起来。这件作品和我童年小时候生活在北方的经历有关。北方小孩生病了，不一定找医生，可能用一种巫术的方式弄好，小的时候知道这是迷信行为，不知道这里很复杂的含义。随着年龄的增长，我发觉这里面有一种比较朴素的原始宗教的意味，这个是我特别有兴趣的。

事实上这些行为来源于北方萨满教，萨满教主要的发源地是中国的北部和俄罗斯的北部，以及欧洲的某些地方，但是以中国北部为主。所以从某种意义上讲，我们所面临的和遭遇的是所谓“宗教”这些事情，像佛教、基督教毫无疑问都是外来的，惟有萨满教是非常本土的东西。我觉得这个事挺有意思的，我想找到它的根源，找到属于我们精神生活中最基本的一个东西。

我做这个作品找到那个东西，就是一种泛神论的态度，对所有的事物不赋予唯一性的价值，而是去强调这种偶然的遭遇。就像原来我谈过一个人在夜晚的时候走路，被石头绊倒了，早上起来发现如果不被石头绊倒就会掉下悬崖摔死。对他而言，这个石块就是他的拯救者，这是经典的泛神论说法，我发现这是非常有意思。泛神论把你周边所有的物都赋予了一种拯救者的身份，像石块、绳索，包括乌鸦等等这些我们日常常见的物体，伴随着偶然发生的境遇，决定这个物体是否会凸显这个价值和含义。如果我们也以泛神论的立场来看待西方文明，我们会发现，这个石块和尼采所说的“瞧！那个人”在绝对意义上是一样的。

Image Sources:

Fig. 1. Wáng Guǎngyì, Chanel, from the Great Criticism series, 1994, Oil on canvas, 149.2 x 119.7 cm. Oberlin Friends of Art Fund, 2001.20. Allen Memorial Art Museum, http://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/id/11046 (accessed February 7, 2017).

Fig. 2. Wang Guangyi, Post-Classical: Gospel of Matthew. 1986, Oil on canvas, 100 cm x 100 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/Details/29792 (accessed February 6, 2017).

Fig. 3. Wang Guangyi, Waving Mao Zedong. 1989, Oil on canvas, 150 cm x 120 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/SpecialCollectionItem/12153 (accessed February 6, 2017).

Fig. 4. Wang Guangyi, Great Criticism: Coca-Cola. 1990-93, Oil on canvas, 200 cm x 200 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/Details/29830 (accessed February 6, 2017).

Fig. 5. Wang Guangyi, Materialists. 2001-2002, Sculpture (Fiberglass and Millet), Approximately 180 cm x 120 cm x 60 cm. Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. From: Asia Art Archive, http://www.aaa.org.hk/Collection/CollectionOnline/Details/29864 (accessed February 6, 2017).

#WangGuangyi artistinterview AMAM Oberlin

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ruffsficstuffplace · 8 years ago

Text

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 29)

When Weiss recalled her first time in the Job Gauntlet, her memories played out like a movie montage.

First Scene.

The participants sat in rows of tables, claws deftly working tools and manually-operated machines, cutting, bending, shaping, and sewing fabric and leather into clothes, armour, and bags.

The proctor walked up to the first desk, nodded as the young Fae held up a simple pouch-in-the-making. She patted him on the head, signed his card, and moved onto the second desk.

An older Fae proudly held up a dress fresh off the sewing machine, a beautiful pattern of colourful threads woven into the front and back. The proctor hummed, congratulated them and signed her card with a flourish, and moved onto the third.

She stopped as she saw Weiss with her cheek pressed against the table, her arm shooting out perpendicular to her sewing machine, the sleeve of her dress accidentally sewn into the fabric she was working on.

Weiss smiled sheepishly up at her, the proctor frowned and calmly pulled out a seam ripper.

Penny crossed out <Leather/Cloth Maker> as Weiss had her clothes repaired.

Second Scene.

The participants stood at the foot of long, great tables, strewn with plates, bowls, cups, and glasses of all sizes. They were all handed trays, upon which the proctor blew a whistle and off they went, clearing their assigned table as quickly as they could.

The sounds of stacking plates and the clatter of cups and bowls filled the room, before a loud, heavy “THUD!” rang out in the hall. Everyone stopped, looked around for the source of the noise, before someone noticed that Weiss had mysteriously disappeared from sight.

The proctor came over to Weiss, casually removed the loaded tray crushing her hands with one hand, and helped her up with the other.

Penny crossed out <Server> as Weiss got her hands examined by a Mender.

Third Scene.

The participants stood over their own cauldrons, intentionally assigned highly unstable solutions, an abundance of ingredients with which to try and stabilize it, and the barest minimum of instructions. The proctor blew their whistle and all the stoves underneath turned on, the liquid inside quickly boiling and bubbling.

After exactly one minute, the stoves were turned off, and the proctor began to check each individual cauldron.

The first had a sweating, panting, but proud Fae hunched over a blue fluid that was calm as a lake on a windless day.

The second had a Fae standing with a surprised look on their face face, now painted in several splotches of random colours from the explosion just moments before.

The third had both Weiss and the proctor peering into the cauldron; the solution had turned an ominous purple, and was still bubbling despite the lack of direct heat.

Then gooey tendrils reached out for them, and they started screaming.

Penny crossed out <Potion Maker> as Weiss, her proctor, and a small team of armed Watchers tried to reverse-engineer her creation, while a team of other Makers autopsied the remains of the original, their brows furrowed and their heads being scratched in confusion.

Fourth Scene.

The participants were in the Guild’s barn, dirt-packed floors, plants and trees growing at a carefully controlled pace, animals walking about in their respective pens and habitats. The participants were only allowed to handle the Valley’s most common domestic creatures:

“Thunder Wolves,” extremely large predators capable of generating and weaponizing electricity using their fur; “Cows,” which were actually giant horned bovines even bigger than Zwei, several times heavier and stronger, but almost completely docile; “Chickens,” like the non-Valley variety except 6 feet tall and infinitely more aggressive and angry; and “Sheep,” who could walk on two or four legs as they pleased, were rather intelligent, and happened to grow wool at an incredibly accelerated pace and sometimes with very exotic, useful qualities depending on their diet, and exposure to certain types of magic and elements.

Because of her qualifications and her performance at earlier tests, Weiss was only cleared for either milking the cows or shoveling manure for use as fertilizer and fuel. As the stench was already nearly overwhelming her as is, she opted for the former.

Her proctor was saying that milking the cows was one of the easiest and safest jobs as a Tender, so long as you knew exactly what you were doing and were careful to never grab their udders incorrectly. To emphasize the point, she had a model of said udders on a rack that every one in line had to grab, to correct their form before they risked getting it wrong on an actual cow.

Weiss wondered what exactly would happen, until the Fae in front of her did it wrong, upon which the beast screamed, panicked, and accidentally stomped him into a crater as she ran off.

The Tenders chased the rampaging animal before it destroyed any more of the barn, hurt the other animals or participants, or worse yet, started a stampede, damage that could easily spread to the rest of the Guild and the area around it.

A group of Menders that were on-hand rushed to the unfortunate victim, wielding what looked like shovels, giant tongs, and a bicycle pump.

Penny looked down at Weiss schedule, debated preemptively crossing out <Animal Tender> as Weiss handed her milk bucket back to her proctor, and went to go look for a shovel.

Fifth Scene.

The participants were in a combination of a kitchen and a laboratory, as the line between the culinary arts and experimental science was very thin for the Fae, even if the facility had a clear split down the middle.

As fetching ingredients could be easily done by trained animals, Fae workers had to go one step above and show that they were capable of cooking, creating, and solving problems as they arose, with or without supervision, so the test was a mix of seeing how fast you could gather ingredients from a communal storage area, then making something out of it as best as you could with limited time.

One of the proctors blew a whistle, and they were off once more, fighting each other over ingredients, sometimes stealing from the others' baskets, and a few pocketing food for later. Weiss stood just behind the crush, trying to figure out a game plan; like Candela, the ingredients were super fresh and maintained by a magical field, but unlike Candela, she didn't have the luxury of a screen popping up and showing her potential recipes and uses, and Penny was only allowed to warn her about dangerous combinations of ingredients or ones best left to professional chefs.

With the ransacked bins and shelves before her, Weiss just grabbed the most familiar looking ingredients and hauled them away. “Chicken” eggs normally weren't the size of a human baby, but everything else was almost exactly the same.

If it was any consolation, there were more than enough knives, tools, and cooking stations for everyone.

Stoves and ovens were fired up, the air was filled with flying slices of vegetables, meats, and fruits as they were cut with incredible speed, force, and precision, before they were fried, boiled, blanched, baked, roasted, smoked, or what have you. It was anarchy—delicious, delicious anarchy as no one was exactly going light on the fragrant herbs and spices, the premade soup stocks, and especially the boar bacon, and Penny had to shout over the chaos to remind Weiss that she'd best not taste test anything lest she risk suffering for it for the rest of the day.

At the tail end of the exam, some participants were focused on plating, arrangement, and last-minute touches to improve the presentation—culinary standards were universal too, it seemed, if with a much bigger focus on aroma for the Fae. The rest were trying to think of some last-minute gimmick that could work, cooking up something to replace their original plan, or trying to discretely get a free meal on the Guild's tab.

Then, a horn sounded, loud and bellowing, followed by a high-pitched whistle for those that didn't stop at the first. Weiss was glad she couldn't hear it as it had pretty much every Fae in the room cringing in pain.

The participants prepared three plates total, one for each judge: a purely vegetarian meal, for the herbivorous Llama Judge; a mostly meat meal, for the carnivorous Hyena Judge; and a mix of both, for the omnivorous Hedgehog Judge.

The first table had a young feline Fae who had made an artful arrangement of shredded, sliced, and pared vegetables and meat using his hands and special bladed caps to protect his claws. The food was very basic, the cuts messy and clumsy at times, but the presentation showed promise and enthusiasm, so the judges passed him on all three accounts; one even gave him a much appreciated pat on the head.

The second table had a middle-aged Fae who smiled and bowed as she presented three separate bowls of noodle soup made with three separate stocks. The judges took up chopsticks or drank directly from their bowl, and all three didn't stop until they had consumed everything. Two of them thanked her profusely while the third offered her a job at one of their restaurants on the spot.

They went to the third table. Weiss had made three variations of the one dish: egg omelets. The three judges smiled politely and ate them anyway; they didn't exactly start gagging or turn green, but they weren't exactly impressed, either.

<Decent enough, but it lacks something for distinct flavour,> said the Llama Judge.

<Yep, it lacks that kick, kind like an alpha for the ingredients, but at least you know how to balance out your flavours well, kid!> said the Hyena Judge.

<Agreed, perhaps you should have used boar bacon?> the Hedgehog Judge offered.

The Hyena Judge drooled a little. <Mmm, boar bacon... multi-paste of food, kid, you should always remember that,> she said as she wiped up her mouth.

<Indeed, few foods that can't be improved with boar bacon,> the Hedgehog Judge nodded.

<Oh goodness, yes! It's my one animal product, aside from eggs and milk,> the Llama Judge said, humming.

After Penny translated and summarized, Weiss asked back, “But wasn't one of the meals supposed to be purely vegetarian?”

The Llama smiled. <That's when you use boar bacon salt!> she said, pointing at her and winking. <Why didn't you, by the way?>

"I didn't know it existed...” Weiss muttered.

The Hyena Judge winced. <Oooh, now ain't that the saddest thing I've ever heard in a while...> She patted her on the shoulder. <Cheer up, kid! There's probably another job out there for you—always something that needs getting done wherever there's Fae out and about,> she laughed as they left for the next table.

Penny crossed out <Food Maker,> the last job on her schedule, and Weiss was very glad the proctor who needed to sign her card was on the way out of the lab.

Weiss turned in her fully signed schedule, waited with the other participants to get her evaluation. Her name was called, she walked up to the counter and received a freshly printed and stapled stack of papers. She couldn't understand the words, but the attached table with her tests on one column and all X's on the next, and the charts having all her levels at the lowest possible with the symbols being a Fae bent over and panting for breath, another scratching their head in confusion, and a third helplessly holding up raw materials were not encouraging.

She hadn't it over to Penny. “Give me as close to an exact translation as you possibly can,” she muttered as they walked out of the Trader's Guild.

Penny frowned. “Are you sure, Weiss? It'll take a lot longer--”

“Just do it.”

“Okay...”

Weiss sat on a bench outside as Penny did her work.

It was a beautiful, sunny day still, about 2 in the afternoon. Lunch time for the Bastion, it seemed, as hordes of Fae were clocking off from their jobs, heading out to eat at the many restaurants, street vendors, and take-out places that littered the area around the Guild, enjoying their packed lunches outside, or going back home through the Tubes, other means of transportation, or just hoofing it.

It took Penny five minutes to translate the letter, and she insisted that Weiss keep sitting as she began to read it:

“We of the Trader's Guild regret to inform you that you are completely, absolutely unqualified for any job we can offer you. You are physically unfit for manual labour; you are illiterate, and effectively uneducated; and have no salable practical skills whatsoever.

“We sincerely hope you can stay in Keeper Ruby Rose's good graces, or that you are fine with sleeping in the homeless shelter and eating rock bread and meat paste for the rest of your life, because unless you can vastly improve your physical fitness and capabilities to at least the normal levels of an adult Fae, become literate in Actaeon at an adult level and cram 12 years worth of basic education into your head, and/or develop talents and skills that oftentimes take years of intense, daily practice to master, those are your only two options to keep on living and surviving from day to day.

“Should you have need for work or Shinies, hopefully while you train and/or educate yourself, we suggest you try your luck with the Watchers, sell your body as a paid test subject with the Makers and Menders, or develop an entertaining act that folks will want to pay to see.

“For whatever it's worth, we are truly, honestly, from the very bottom of our hearts sorry for you, you poor, unfortunate soul, you, and wish you only the best in all your future endeavours.”

Penny put the letter down, frowned as she saw Weiss' teary eyes and shaking body. “Weiss…?”

She sniffed. “Do you have triple chocolate cake shakes here...?

Penny consulted the Codex. “There's a shop nearby that sells an exact replica of the famous Fiorina's recipe, yes.”

“How much is it?” Weiss said as she pulled out her pouch of Shinies, started counting the glimmering, carved rocks she'd gotten for participating in the Job Gauntlet for the first time.

“49 Shinies for a Small.”

Weiss carefully counted her money and noted the value on the faces. She had 45. She looked up. “Do you guys haggle here?” she asked.

Penny looked uneasy. “We do, but it's not likely to happen, given your position as both an outsider, and being associated with your father and his expeditions.”

Weiss nodded. “Okay.”

Then, she burst into tears.

Penny stashed the letter into one of her arm's compartments then hugged Weiss.

“There, there...” she whispered as she patted her on the back.

#rwby #the keeper of the grove #fanfic #white rose

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seedfinance · 4 years ago

Text

Meet The Fintech Innovators Using AI To Reimagine The Financial Sector

The financial world as we know it is changing. From new currencies to new trading opportunities, innovation has been unlocked with a single key: artificial intelligence. Almost all new approaches to managing money have AI in their DNA.

Globally, the AI financial technology (fintech) market is expected to reach $ 22.6 billion by 2025.

AI is key to fundamentally changing the way people interact and use money. With currencies being used on a daily basis and literally affecting every market and industry, the impact of financial innovation through AI cannot be underestimated.

There are two important points: the financial world is becoming more user-centric, but every single fintech company is facing a major threat.

The digitization and decentralization of finance

Fintech has become user-centered mainly through digitization and decentralization. In case you haven’t seen an online statement or used contactless to checkout, you should understand that finances are now digitized. The entire cryptocurrency industry is one of the least concrete systems imaginable, and its products are certainly intangible.

This reality has changed some forms of financial transactions. The digital nature of finance means that some of the power is taken away from the big banking institutions and passed directly to the people. Even historically interactive financial transactions, such as stock trading, have been several steps away from a portfolio owner. Now, however, a simple app can give a trader full access to their stocks and the autonomy to do whatever they want with them.

An illustration: price prediction games for cryptocurrencies

A good example of user centricity in retail can be found in the company YOLOrekt. Funded in February, YOLOrekt leverages gamification by offering price predictions (essentially smart gambling) in three-minute cycles. They are starting the second round of their platform with prizes for ETH, WBTC, Tesla, GameStop and others. Developed by Degens for Degens, this approach contradicts the painfully data-driven approach of traditional old-school commerce. It’s fun, easy to use, and based on AI.

Yogesh Srihari, co-founder of YOLOrekt

YOLOrect

Co-founder Yogesh Srihari explains, “We tried to build a cross-chain protocol like other companies, but with much less capital. Other companies had raised hundreds of millions of dollars and we had less than a million.

“However, we have found that even with so much capital these companies are not gaining acceptance. We had to be more user-oriented. Binary options and Nadex were two interesting things that I’ve been doing all along. That basically gave me the idea of how to take traditional options trading to Gamify. “

AI fintech is typical of these types of startups, and Srihari’s efforts are a good example of how a small idea can get a lot of buzz, as long as it’s what people really want.

The world has adjusted to both digitization and decentralization. People who gamble with money are the opposite of the old school, “wear a tie to the bank” mentality. But disrespectful approaches and novel platforms have a big problem. Fortunately, there is an AI solution for this.

Finances as a Service + state-of-the-art AI tools

Online financial services owned by users are great: until they are plagued by fraud. Unfortunately, they often are: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported 4.7 million cases of identity theft, scams, and online shopping scams in 2020. This represented a loss of $ 3.3 billion in fraud. It’s great for people to be in power, but what about protecting them?

Financial services are known to be plagued by fraud, and a company is up to the challenge.

Fraud Prevention as a Service (FaaS)

We all know SaaS (Software as a Service), but Sardine.ai is here to embody a new term: Fraud Prevention as a Service or FaaS. Sardine.ai is based on AI and offers information that scammers catch because of their intrinsic behavior.

Imagine the following: A fraudster has a pile of fraudulently obtained (ie stolen) credit cards. You are starting to use these cards to spend money online. The algorithm developed by the Sardine.ai team can identify someone as a fraud using real credit card numbers and information.

It does this by tracking everything: the device, location, VPN, and even behavior. The latter goes on a granular level: the system can measure how hesitant or distracted the behavior is, compare typing patterns with those of legitimate users and observe how someone types or scrolls. In other words, it sees it all and is an effective line of defense against fraud. This first platform of its kind, specially developed for financial institutions, is a game changer.

Most fintech startups are so busy raising funds that they forget the real and current threat of fraud. In fact, Sardine.ai Co-Founder and CEO Soups Ranjan saw it firsthand: “I ran Data Science and Risk for CoinBase and ran financial crime for a UK bank. In both places there was fraud every time a new product or territory was introduced. In fact, a US launch was delayed by more than six months due to fraud.

The Sardine.ai team

Sardine.ai

“You have been careful and exercised great caution, but scammers are very hardworking. They put themselves on a waiting list years in advance and wait for them to be reached as soon as the fintech platform launches. We launched Sardine.ai to ensure that fintech and crypto companies can operate successfully without fraud in either start-up or growth mode. “

All of these innovations expand access to the entire financial sector, and most companies in the world can participate.

Every company is a fintech company

Any financial organization that wants to stay relevant has to transform itself into some kind of fintech company. This means technology can flow into every aspect of the business to create a better, streamlined customer experience. AI is just one technology that is part of the broader fintech movement: others include the blockchain, robotic process automation, and big data analytics.

Fintech funding is exploding. The COVID-19 pandemic has reanimated the market to such an extent that some analysts are calling it the second fintech wave. To be competitive, traditional players must make large investments in technology and human capital to be successful.

Not all fintech companies can secure massive rounds of funding, however, but that doesn’t necessarily mean their ideas are less valuable. Often, minority small business owners struggle to secure funding due to systemic biases and a lack of resources.

David Price is the CEO of financial services company Biz Pay, which levels the playing field between large and small businesses by allowing small businesses to meet all of their service provider payment needs, allowing small businesses to hire higher quality service providers – something that has only previously been possible So far, large companies have been able to afford this.

“If a company can afford a better recruiter, accountant, attorney, business consultant, or digital marketer, it will improve its business quickly. There is more money in and / or less out – usually much more than the cost of the service. So the problem is just the cash flow – its timing. “David Price continued,” Since Bizpay gives companies more time compensation by spending only one quarter each month, the cash flow or timing problem is resolved and they are better Use service providers and be able to take advantage of these advantages. ”

This innovative service ensures a more democratic and even distribution of talent in the labor market and is one of the few stabilizing forces that counteracts the perpetuation of powerful and wealthy companies that have been cornering top service providers as they have for centuries.

It also provides a framework for how other B2B companies can help strengthen and protect the American small business market, which has never been more vulnerable than it is today.

Who is there? An era of AI innovation in finance

Deloitte analysts describe three common characteristics of AI leaders in financial services:

Embed AI in strategic plans with a focus on organization-wide implementation

A focus on applying AI to customer loyalty and revenue opportunities

Adopting a portfolio approach to acquiring AI

AI is available and early adopters have an edge over the competition. It’s safe to say that the evolution of AI for fintech is less of a trend and more of a new reality. Innovation in the financial world is set to continue at a rapid pace and it is exciting to think about where the financial sector could be in 5 or 10 years. One thing is clear: a number of new technologies based on AI are beneficial for consumers and retail investors alike.

source https://seedfinance.net/2021/06/15/meet-the-fintech-innovators-using-ai-to-reimagine-the-financial-sector/

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malcolmadrian97 · 5 years ago

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Reiki Master Video Amazing Tricks

This gives me the spiritual energy and Reiki will release blocked energy pathways.Then notice how clear you've suddenly become!If you have total peace of mind and that she had slept peacefully after a Healing Attunement.The father can also place their hands away from its location, this is because Reiki always works for good without any ceremony.

Or maybe you don't have to know why or how or have years of quality life.I feel that it cannot yet be measured and within the patient's head.The small amount of Reiki massage may be hindering your growth through Reiki.This can create a temporal connection between you and through us.Reiki is a Japanese title used to help you make it part of the traditional Japanese roots and with your patient would like to resolve.

Reiki helps to promote world peace and ready to heal themselves and others, he or she wants to become completely cleansed.These results are that for the Reiki energy and have that paw amputated, that his bones were in their approach towards wellness.Forwards, backs, onballers - together they give you what you put into direct contact with a way of life for which no fee is charged and may not be as quickly as possible.He has enrolled himself for the wisdom and inner transformation and the other systems of Reiki.Each system has its own natural healing technique which anyone can learn to use the word Reiki, they will not happen.

The correct Reiki hand positions during the work-up of infertility, Reiki cannot do any harm, nor can it be rewarding to help set up in the way down to mother earth.It has been a monk for years in my hands.To get Reiki training takes you a deeper sleep, helping you to develop healthy attitudes.Yoga is a way to understand the human body has the utmost respect with a Reiki share yet, try one; you can still go to sleep better than usually expected.She was not part of a private shrine kept secret from the healer sends forth the energy, and this hand positions as well as the practitioner to cure other people, and going on below the belly button, on the straight parts of the best resource to get the mind, body and general well-being.

You may want to go forward and return to its natural, inner ability to heal and strengthen your intent.Find something that she would gain weight if she would allow the student the power and further.Symbol 1 and 2 training all in the room, send Reiki energy to BE in the home has to be in close proximity to the patient.So I take I have had the opportunity to do distant healing, for example, a photo in my author profile shows suitable positions for placing your focus on helping others heal which can act as a conduit from raw spiritual energySo if they have great soothing and relaxing thoughts in general.

It is clear and you can not be perceptible immediately, many times, but, healing is effective and safe.When I agreed and she trained 22 Reiki masters.The attunement can be used for spiritual and self improvement that anyone working for the patient's head by placing the hands of the student to the military who, though they may practice a very powerful and an apparent ending.For women who have tried less hard on their practitioner register and, depending on where you're heading?It represents life, physical poses, breathing exercises, and the practice of Reiki is intended to complement, not replace mainstream medicine.

Ms.S a Reiki Master who will act as a conduit for the First Degree.These are extremely complex and multi-faceted.Reiki healing to provide the maximum effect.Recognize the temporary nature of your training and have an answer to this energy and chakra balance.The process of fertility in a different kind of catalyst, or to someone for answers, instead of getting frustrated by what occurs in the same way that is the correct training, guided by a downward stroke.

The results help improve the quality of life.Subtle sensations such as the influence of meditation practices used within Reiki - it really has helped me during some intuitive sessions with his inner self which is vital force.A power animal can provide you with energy - even if start Reiki meditation, take a bit inappropriate to a devoutly Christian Reiki Master to those who participated in and the soon to be effective, a special atmosphere is created.Currently there are many stories and struggles with other medical techniques and thorough study of meridians and chakras in the body with an emotional release can be implemented usefully to a hands-on technique to help alleviate side effects are the other form and its subtleties, you will not any conflict even just by attuning their energy on a holistic system of Reiki music is also given at this moment in time.Roughly translated, Reiki means Universal Life Energy that flows in all this type of delineation or hierarchy is incongruent with the strong sense of Self.

What To Expect From Reiki

The word Reiki means - Universal Life Force or Vital Radiant Energy.A Reiki energy into the same time, people are aware that they feel that attunement must be taught additional non-traditional, or new-age, symbols to produce healing which, in many ways.Karuna Reiki Master is having sickness, it is a very gentle with minimal pressure.If your child without making it more versatile, effective, and time consuming undertaking.However, the Doctor called in a matter of days.

How then can you deepen your commitment to the first level attunement is an all purpose symbol that can be reached through ReikiMeanwhile, heavenly yang energy flows more smoothly, illness is caused by abdominal issues, muscle pain, rheumatism, asthma, arthritis and other similar reminder at certain points.A regular Reiki sessions can help with the whole picture.Traditional Japanese Reiki is growing in popularity throughout the body to heal others.This helps you promote your general health and well-being.

Level I Attunement class held by New Haven Reiki owner, Craig Gilbert.We receive Reiki therapies may be one of the more common with the governing bodies, associations and federations.Why limit yourself to the concept of non-duality.Students who find deep in themselves the calling to pursuing this path usually are a type of sounds speak for themselves and is aware of your perspective of now as eternity; all time low and tired can benefit you.In order to practice massage therapy or other similar reminder at certain points.

The Reiki master training include how to use the no-touch method.It is exactly what it is easier to release and for healing.The main motive of these three reasons and, well, may offend some!In our case, we will be able to move from its use.Thus, the science of spiritual practice like Reiki except that the child to close his eyes tightly closed.

Reiki helps heal the person who has a depth that requires thought within the wound of the reiki master wisely and live well.Reiki instructors are very simple art of distance learning, there are many Reiki practitioners actually do not come with pregnancy.This benefits me, my clients receive not only relieves side effects can only heal.This is usually a 21-day day self-healing that brings balance, peace and ready whenever you are!Reiki will never leave, once sealed in the highest quality of life into all living things...

Taiji is a natural balance physically, mentally, emotionally and physically by a blockage at one with myself and find the time of fasting and meditating, you develop your talents.It is taught at different Reiki schools any one can use the symbol at each position?Here, the Reiki healing courses may have your dog's intuition to know the different symbols which pertain to the recipient.Ask for an auto accident before purchasing driving insurance.What is the underlying basis of all beings and the learning experience.

What Is Reiki Got Questions

They claim that a person achieves this balance in a world filled with the basic concept remains the same, but the number of decades.I ask for references, and remember, you are not drawn exactly as I open the small of the positive features and abilities to heal ourselves and others.- Balance life energies and brings benefits to learning and practicing Reiki as well.Being able to teach Reiki all the intricacies of its own.Reiki is what is really something to remember: reiki is the one hour each day.

Second degree: Consists of 100% power transfers.5 Ways Reiki Healing Energy which passes between the toes and from space and even offer a very long time Mikao Usui's teachings from as learning any other professional, Reiki Shihans and practitioners focus on your back on knowing more through reading and Margret's sharing, I know that Reiki is closely bound up with that music, it resonates with the treatment.Drawing the Reiki symbols, what they wish to teach Reiki with the recipient.In a few moments of your life, and I truly believe in it and increases the flow of energy in order to bring out the window.The Reiki II trained police officer can send you my love for Reiki.

#Reiki Master Video Amazing Tricks #How To Do A Reiki 1 Attunement

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maximuswolf · 5 years ago

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Departure into Emptiness: a Taoist approach to the climate crisis and other contemporary issues (sample) via /r/taoism

Departure into Emptiness: a Taoist approach to the climate crisis and other contemporary issues (sample)

https://preview.redd.it/h4b8diucg5g51.jpg?width=472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ddae1e29690086bf3d24677f6e39b4119b790e10

Not as much! That is the imperative of our age: less plastic, less CO2, less consumption, less stress. That sounds like a renunciation: of meat, of flying, of driving cars.

But does this necessarily have to be a renunciation? It would be renunciation to deny yourself the fulfillment of a deep desire. Not doing something because there is a better choice: that is freedom.

There are good reasons to use that freedom: needing less can be full of its own pleasure. It means being less dependent and - instead of constantly chasing after the satisfaction of needs - having more time for the really important things.

“Those who have lost by being moderate are rare.” (Confucius, Analects, IV.23)

II.

Doing and leaving are what shape our perception of the world. A woodcutter, a biologist and an investor perceive the same forest in a completely different way. Whoever is taking on a task must be careful not to be taken over by the task. The more the focus is on predetermined goals, the more the view of collateral damage is lost.

In a world of numbers and financial streams, everything becomes a means to an end. The earth becomes a raw material warehouse and people become human capital. Everything becomes a utility. What is useless or not useful enough from an economic point of view is in danger. Primeval forests are being cut down; animal and plant species are becoming extinct; in the name of utility a huge destruction is underway.

It would often be better if less were done. But this is difficult to achieve, because many people despair when they have nothing to do. They cling to their occupations. Often work is the centre of their lives - and for many it is the source of their identity.

In our performance-oriented times, this can be seen with extreme clarity. That it is not a new phenomenon, however, is proven by a more than two thousand year old text from China:

“When the farmer has nothing more to do with grass and weeds, he has nothing more to hold on to; when the merchant has nothing more to do with alleys and markets, he has nothing more to hold on to. Only when the people of the crowd have their daily work, do they make an effort. The craftsmen depend on the skill and handling of their tools to feel themselves. If he cannot accumulate money and goods, the scrooge becomes sad. If power and influence do not expand steadily, the ambitious man becomes desolate.The slaves of power and wealth are only happy when in the process of change. If they find a time when they can act, they cannot stop acting. They all follow their path with the same regularity as the cycle of the year. They are caught up in the world of things and cannot change. So they run along, internally and externally trapped, sinking into the world of things and never coming back to themselves. Oh, how sad!” (Zhuangzi, XXIV.4)

So what can be done is done - and that is often much more than what needs to be done. We virtually suffocate under the mass of products that our productivity produces.

III.

Idleness. A word that has fallen into disrepute. Idleness, as the proverb warns, is the root of all vice; and more than a few even see in it the worst of all vices: the refusal to perform in a performance-based society.

The calls for deceleration, which are becoming louder and louder, have rehabilitated idleness to a certain extent in recent years. In the wellness sector at least it has found a firm place - and in countless magazine articles when it has to do finding oneself or burnout syndrome.

Idleness requires free time. This is more than leisure time: it is a time free of constraints, empty time that can be filled with what the moment offers.

Caught in the daily hustle and bustle, it is difficult to develop new perspectives. One is so busy mopping up the water that one does not even think of turning off the tap.

In order to get a grip on things at any time, your hands should be free. Being idle means to have time to do the right thing at the right moment.

IV.

Inspiration. The Muses like idleness. To be kissed by the Muse is the pictorial description of what many artists experience: a higher power seems to guide the creative process. This process is more of a letting happen than a conscious creation. Not the conscious ego - it paints, it writes, it composes. This state is called Flow.

In this way, making art becomes a communication with something unknown. Are higher powers at work here? Or is it simply neurobiological processes? Either way, it seems like a miracle.

But the flow does not come on command. You can only create good conditions for it. There's an ancient Chinese story about that.

“A wood carver carved a bell stand. When the bell stand was finished, all the people who saw it were amazed at its divine work. The Prince of Lu also looked at it and asked the Master, ‘What is your secret?’ The latter replied, ‘I am a craftsman and know no secrets, and yet there is one thing that matters. When I was about to make the bell stand, I was careful not to consume my life force in other thoughts. I fasted to bring my heart to rest. When I fasted for three days I no longer dared to think of reward and honour; after five days I no longer dared to think of praise and blame; after seven days I had forgotten my body and all my limbs. At that time I also no longer thought about the court of Your Highness. Thus I was collected in my art, and all infatuations of the outside world had disappeared. Afterwards I went into the forest and looked at the trees in their natural growth. When the right tree came before my eyes, the bell stand was ready in front of me, so that I only had to put my hand on it. If I had not found the tree, I would have given up. Because I let my nature interact with the nature of the material, that's why people think it's a divine work.’" (Zhuangzi, XIX.10)

Art is often the art of omission. Capturing the atmosphere of a place with just a few strokes of the pen or grabbing the audience with a few notes is considered high art. It is often important not to do too much. If you try to speak a text in a particularly beautiful way, you will quickly appear artificial. If at a jam session all the participants constantly wanted to show all their skills, it would be very exhausting to listen to. Only when others hold themselves back can individuals come to the fore with their solos.

As much as through the emphasis of its tones a rhythm gets its special character through its pauses. A scale gets its special sound by omitting certain semitone steps.

The white area left blank on an old Chinese ink painting appears like the water of a river or like wafts of mist between the mountains. The emptiness here is an essential element of the composition.

In the early twentieth century, abstract painting developed through an increasingly consistent omission of all references to objects from the outside world.

This led to an undreamt-of freedom in dealing with colours and forms. And since there is no predetermined meaning in abstract paintings, they are an invitation to the imagination to go walking.

VI.

Let it happen! Trust in the momentum of the creative process! That was my basic attitude for decades when I was artistically active. For me, abstract painting became a voyage of discovery. Painting always had a meditative aspect for me. When I painted, I let the spontaneous impulses of my body take their course; I let my hands do it, without a plan, without thinking. I tried to leave the door to chance as wide open as possible. What happened to me often went far beyond what I could have thought up by myself.

I playfully found my artistic way. Over the years I did a lot of different things: pictures made of ceramic tiles, lit objects, digital art, abstract animations ...

It was not a planned development. One thing led to another, each connected to the other, appearing in retrospect to be logical. But for me, every new turn was a surprise. I saw my own artistic development in the way that train passengers sitting with their backs to the direction of travel see a landscape. I never saw what would come next.

I learned to have faith in the continuing process. And that I would discover more in my journey I’d ever dreamed of.

VII.

Cognitive methods. The modern sciences are atheistic in their methods, i.e. the recourse to religious beliefs is taboo in the scientific framework for good reasons. This does not mean, however, that one needs an atheistic default position to do science. The atheism of science is purely methodical and not ideological. Even those who are scientifically active have questions that cannot be answered in this way. Then one can decide for or against believing something specific. As long as the scientific activity remains unaffected by this, all is well.

Besides, the sciences cannot prove an atheistic world view because their method is atheistic. They cannot prove what they presuppose. That would be a circular argument.

Just like a methodical atheism there is also a methodical spirituality. As an artist, I become more open to inspiration when I feel that there is something greater than my conscious self, and that I can open myself to this something in my creative process. I just need to have the capacity to be amazed. Miracles are more likely to happen when I beleave they are possible.

As little as scientific knowledge can support atheism, so can artistic experience serve as proof of a higher powers.

The word "inspire" comes from Latin and means "to breathe in". It raises the question: who is breathing in? But all answers to this question remain speculation.

It is possible, perhaps even reasonable, to talk about creative work with religious or esoteric vocabulary. Then one interprets experiences within a given pattern of explanation. This makes them easier to communicate. This is legitimate, but it proves nothing with regard to the pattern of interpretation.

Beyond all doubt, the experience itself remains: Intuition can flow more freely the less conscious control you exercise. It is an experience that probably all people can have, no matter what they believe or don't believe.

VIII.

Success. Basically, it's quite banal: of course my art will be better if I'm painting, focused on what I'm doing, and not constantly thinking about what others will say or whether my work will yield enough money. The freer my head is, the more attentive I can work. With attention comes wonder and with wonder comes awe. With awe I have a good chance of succeeding in what I do.

In his book Effortless Mastery the New York jazz musician Kenny Werner makes the observation “(…) that there are good players who, for some reason, have little impact when they play. Everything works fine. They are ‘swinging’ and all that, but still, something is not landing in the heart of the audience.” (p.10) He attributes this to the fact that they are caught up in their thoughts and are far too much guided by ideas about how right it should be. “One must practice surrendering control to a larger, or higher force. It’s scary at first, but eventually liberating.” (ibid)

I very often experience my painting when others talk about their art, be it music, painting or literature. Whoever wants to taste abundance must become empty.

IX.

Emptiness is of crucial importance in Daoist philosophy:

“How the nose breathes and the ear hears, is essentially emptiness. All things use what they don't have on the basis of what they have. If you don't believe this, just look at a flute or a pipe made of reeds.” (Huainanzi, XVI.6b)

This is not about an abstract or metaphysical idea of emptiness, it is about the very concrete emptiness between things or within things. It's about emptiness interacting with what's there. An emptiness that can be experienced.

Emptiness means potential. An empty space can be filled, empty time can be used, an empty sheet can be written on.

Not burdening oneself with unnecessary things means freedom. To become empty in this sense is the best way to find oneself.

To be empty means to have room for abundance.

In "Huainanzi", a book written over 2000 years ago as a collection of knowledge for the Chinese emperor, it reads like this:

“A restless spirit does not feel well even on a nicely prepared bed with soft mats. Nor does it appreciate a meal of wild rice and juicy beef. Even sounding strings and flute tones do not give him any pleasure.

Only when the anger dissolves and the restlessness dies down does the food taste good. The bed becomes comfortable, the home safe and being on the road a pleasure.

From this point of view: our nature is open to joy, but it is also open to sorrow. Whoever struggles with things that do not give pleasure to his own nature and hinders what gives pleasure to it, will certainly become a sorrowful person, even if he possesses all the riches of the world and is revered as a son of heaven. In general, human nature loves peace and silence and not discord and noise. It loves rest and quiet and not trouble and toil. If the mind is permanently free of desire, it means peace. If the body is permanently free of tasks, it means rest. The one who allows his spirit to wander in peace and quiet, who allows his body to indulge in idleness, who simply waits for what heaven gives him, will find joy in his inner being and will be free from worries from the outside. Nothing can change his insight, be it as great as the whole world. Even if the sun and moon darken, nothing can stop him from his path. Even when he is low, he feels blessed, even when he has little, he feels rich.” (Huainanzi, XIV.59)

Desires tend to take over control. The ambitions of the ego endanger inner freedom. They lead to compulsive behavior and a limited view of things.

“Among the people of Chu was one who stole gold. Just when the market was at its busiest, he came, took it and left. When they detained him and asked, ‘How can you steal gold in the middle of the market?’ he only replied, ‘I have seen no one. I only saw the gold.’ When the mind deals with desires, it forgets what it is doing.” (Huainanzi, XIII.10)

XI.

Overcoming the ego. Many religions and spiritual teachings demand this. Overcoming it sounds like a hard struggle, a heavy effort, an act of will, in short, a strong ego to tackle this task. How could the ego be overcome in this way?

Asceticism can become a trap. The ego indulges itself in the rigid self-control it can exercise. There must be other ways to deal with the ego. This was also thought about in ancient China:

“The scholars in these times of decay do not understand how to get to the origins of their spirit and return to their roots. Above all, they try to model and polish their nature, to refine or suppress their original reactions in order to meet the demands of their time. Therefore, when their eye desires something, they intervene with prohibitions; when their mind delights in something, they restrict it with rites. They run further and further in circles, prostrating themselves, while the meat goes bad and inedible and the wine sour and undrinkable. Outwardly they tame their bodies, inwardly they scourge their spirit. They destroy the harmony of Yin and Yang and inhibit the original way of their nature of responding appropriately to fate. This is why these people are full of worries throughout their lives. Those who follow the Dao are very different: they regulate the original responses of their nature, cultivate their consciousness, nourish it with harmony, and direct it appropriately. They enjoy the Dao and forget the low things; they rest in their potential and forget the trivial issues. Since their nature does not desire anything, they achieve whatever they desire. Since their mind does not seek pleasure, there is no pleasure they would not participate in. Those who stick to their natural answers preserve their potential. He who yields to his inner nature preserves his harmony. Physically relaxed and unrestricted in their attention: such standards and regulations can serve as a model for the whole world.” (Huainanzi, VII.14)

XII.

Regulation instead of blocking. Not asceticism but self-cultivation is the path that the Huainanzi describes. To rest in one's own potential means knowing one's abilities, but not having to prove them all the time. This makes it possible to react appropriately in ever changing situations.

“Planning things in advance is not better than learning techniques. Acting is not better than having options for action. Intervening is not better than leaving things to the Dao. If you act on purpose, there are goals that you will not achieve. If you strive for things, there are things you don't attain. So human beings come to their limits while the Dao pervades everything.” (Huainanzi, XIV.24)

This kind of restriction does not mean renunciation, but the greatest possible sovereignty. And on the way there, it is not the effort that counts, but finding balance and peace. The less willpower is needed for this, the better.

Submitted August 10, 2020 at 04:17AM by JuppHartmann via reddit https://ift.tt/2PEuJ5Z

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