#knowing more definitely helps (and it's just fun to learn) but the barrier of entry isn't really that high

[sillimancer]

random 5am before bed rambling but I genuinely don't get white people who hesitate to create original characters that aren't also white people. it's literally so fun learning about other cultures? getting to practice drawing new hair textures and face shapes? you have an excuse to go consume non-white media as an entry point into worlds previously unknown to you???? idk man maybe you're just racist

[an-expected-journey-to-jeju]

Journal Entry #5

I can't believe I've been here for exactly one month already! Time has gone so fast yet so slow at the same time. So many things have happened that it's hard to believe it's only been a month, yet there's so many things I need to do still and I'm down a month.

I would be lying if I said there hasn't been any downs, but I'm happy to say that 90% of my time has been all joyful. It definitely helps when you have an amazing support system (both here and back in Canada!). I'm grateful that I fit in here, even if there is a bit of a language barrier sometimes. Even so, the barrier isn't so big. Just being with everyone here makes me happy. No words need to be said.

In honour of my one month post, I will share some of the highlights:

The good:

Going to the cafe: S. Korea is littered with cafes and Jeju is no exception. But there is one cafe here that is our go-to. it's called 빽다방 (Paikdabang or bbaekdabang, I'm not quite sure since it's not a word you can translate). The prices are cheap and the drinks are really tasty. What's good about it (not for my Korean learning) is that I can order through a screen outside, no interaction needed! Except for one worker, I always say hi to her because she's always so cheerful and I think she recognizes me now! That's right, I'm a regular customer. But, i do keep the menu in Korean so I can still practice reading.

Having class with the students: A lot of them are still beginners in English so I teach them spelling, phonetics, etc... basically the basics. I love explaining things to them and teaching them. I have a lot of fun doing it and hopefully they like our classes too. A lot of them forget that we have class most of the time so I have to hunt them down but even then, I can't stay mad at them.

Living by the beach: It is amazing that I can see the ocean from my window and also walk to it in one minute. I really like walking along the beach alone with an iced americano! No thoughts in my brain, just watching the waves and the surfers and the other people walking. I never get tired of the view. It's even crazier when it's stormy and the waves get really big.

Getting a package from home: I got a package from my mom maybe a week ago? I was super excited to get it. Not just because it was from home, but because it has deodorant and shampoo that my hair likes. Not having deodorant was horrible and having my hair go greasy mid-way through the day was just not it. I was starting to feel so gross, and you know how your mood turns sour if you don't feel right in your own skin.

Nice outfits: This one is a weird one, but still one of my highlights nonetheless. My fashion has been on point this whole time. At home, I would just throw on leggings and a hoodie and call it a day, but here I really try to look my best. If only I was able to do my makeup, then I'd really be killing it. Unfortunately I know next to nothing about makeup nor do I want to wake up early just to do it. I already skip breakfast so I can sleep in a little bit more, I'm definitely not going to throw away my precious sleep for makeup.

The not so good:

School: I still very much don't like school and class (language program). I'm often bored in class, not because it's super easy, but because of the people and the teaching styles. I'm a person that likes to learn alone. It's also inconvenient for me to even get to school. I get dropped off at the make-shift bus stop, take the free shuttle bus, and then when class is over I take the regular bus to a location and get picked up there and driven back home.

Not having friends: Of course I have friends, I'd like to think I'm close with the students here and I have a lot of fun with them. That aside, I would really like to have friends my age that I can hang out with. It's a bit lonely not having same-age friends.

Feeling stuck: This sounds awful, but I assure you it's not. It goes along with the previous statement. Jeju only has a bus system which makes it a bit difficult to get around. I'm also either at university or at LRIS so I'm super busy doing things. I don't have time to go out and explore and if I do have time, I don't really have a way to go out (or the people to go out with). I'm grateful that I have cafes and convenience stores within walking distance, but I miss being able to just jump into the car and drive somewhere. I want to go to different restaurants, sightsee, and go to Starbucks!! I haven't been yet since the closest one is a 30 minute walk. What's ironic is that the bus would take 20 minutes.

Well, I think that's all from me. Thank you to those who take the time to read my updates, I appreciate you!

[glasshalftrue]

as both an artist and a programmer (though not one working in machine learning so i won't claim anything close to expertise), the anti-ai takes i see from artists are really frustrating to me. the two most common criticisms i see about it are that it's 1. stealing 2. not art regarding the first point, it's clear that most artists don't understand the general technology behind it at all. they constantly claim that it does stuff like just collage different parts of images together, when that's very much not what it's doing! the process that neural nets use is incredibly complex and it's much more about pattern matching than storing and replicating exact sets of pixels. i definitely don't like it when ai artists specifically target an artist who voices their discomfort with having their art being used that way, if only because it's simply mean and rude, but unfortunately, i can't say that i'd consider it plagiarism. and for the people who want stronger copyright laws to protect artists' rights: believe me, it will not at all be helpful to "the little guy" like you think it will. regarding the second point, it seems like there's a couple things going on. one part of the critique seems to come from the quality of the art itself, which is an obviously losing battle. remember a year ago, when people were making fun of how bad ai was at generating hands? they seem to have pretty much solved that now, and whatever little nitpick you might be able to point out next, it's almost certain they'll eventually figure out that one too. i see a lot of tips floating around about how to tell if a piece of art is ai-generated, and while the tips usually do work well, the fact that the people need to use these increasingly specialized perceptive skills makes it pretty clear that it's becoming more and more indistinguishable. i've seen plenty of cases at this point of real artists having their work being accused of being ai-generated, which to me seems like the logical conclusion of people's assumptions that they can always tell when something is real or not, and i think it's only going to get worse and worse. the other part of the critique is about the artist's intent, an appeal to some illusory idea of "the soul", which seem like transparently bad arguments to me, and are clearly motivated from an emotional-driven place. because it seems so obvious to me that prompters do, in fact, have an intent when they're generating ai art, some sort of vision of what they want to create. it doesn't matter that their idea is vaguely defined rather than fully-formed in their head; plenty of existing art forms involve a creation process that is similarly stochastic, from Jackson Pollock-style drip paintings to experimental generative digital music. hell, even when i draw i often don't know exactly what i want to the end product to look like and figure it out as i go along! now, the incredibly low-barrier to entry and the general motivations and sensibilities of a lot of typical ai art enthusiasts mean that, in practice, a lot of (maybe most) ai art is indeed dumb garbage. but just like how the reality that most mainstream superhero movies these days are boring and soulless doesn't mean that the superhero genre is inherently without merit, the existence of bad ai art isn't good evidence of the medium itself being creatively bankrupt.

ultimately, i do agree and sympathize with a lot of artists' concerns and criticisms about ai art and what its possible effects on the world will be. like i said, in practice a lot of ai art really is soulless trash, but the ease of creation means that i can very easily see a world where most of the art we see today in our everyday lives is replaced with bland, insipid ai generated shit that is just good enough for the general public, and i really don't want to live in that world. and for that same reason, it'll also likely have a very bad impact on the art industry and people's abilities to do art as a career, and while the disruption of industries due to technological innovation is a tale as old as time, the potentially rapid pace of this disruption will certainly lead to a lot of suffering along the way. i just wish that artists had a better idea of what they're actually fighting against.

[sirfrogsworth]

Oh boy, I love a good gear journey.

If I can make one suggestion, ultra wide angle lenses are the most fun out of all the focal lengths. They aren't the most useful. And there aren't always a lot of opportunities to use them. But I never had as much joy shooting with any other lens.

The ball is no more than a foot away.

Ultra wide angle lenses exaggerate distance. So near things will look very big and far things will look tiny. And it is fun to play with those perspectives by having foreground and mid-ground elements competing in the frame.

Otherwise, I think you have a lot of the bases covered. And the D600 is such a classic camera that always punched above its price point.

Part of why I love photography so much is there is a spectrum of artistry and technology and you can lean either way and still be a great photographer.

If you like to get nerdy and play with all of the fun gadgets, you have that option.

And if you just want to keep the gear simple and only concern yourself with the art, that's cool too.

You can even do both if you want.

I've been a tech geek since I was 14. I used to build my own computers for fun and have been hooked on technology ever since. So, obviously, I love all of the gear. And not just because it is fun to play with. It allows me to push my photography in new and interesting ways. Especially when it comes to things like high end lighting and macro photography.

I'm actually hoping I can get into artistic microscopy at some point. Most macro photography is taken at 1x magnification, but there are objective lenses you can attach that go to 25x and even 50x. But it is possibly the most challenging type of photography and it has a very expensive barrier to entry.

Allan Walls has some microscopy content on his YouTube. And he has to 3D print parts and build special platforms and cages to keep the lenses stable enough. Sometimes just being in the room, shifting your weight in your seat, or just breathing is enough to shake the image at that magnification.

But some of the shots he is able to achieve are just mind boggling. These are scientific levels of magnification while using artistic lighting.

Some day.

Maybe.

My personal gear journey was always fairly humble. But I definitely had some cool stuff. I also started with regular flashes/speedlights. I would get the manual ones because they were only $60.

There is one gadget that I felt pretty silly about getting.

This allowed me to fire 3 flashes at the same modifier. And I thought "more is better" ya know? But in reality, it just created 3 hotspots. So instead of one large, soft light source, I created 3 small and harsh light sources. It ended up making people look quite bad and it was like shining a 3 spotlights on blemishes and acne.

You never stop learning!

Eventually I built a little studio in my basement. But it was small and light reflected off the walls, so my friends helped me paint it black. Even the ceiling.

And I got my first studio strobes. Which are just much more powerful flashes with attachment points on the front. They were called "AlienBees" and it really took my photography to a new level. Mostly because it allowed me to use professional light modifiers like beauty dishes and softboxes.

Studio accessories for regular flashes are a bit hit-and-miss, but they do make them. And they are a great way to learn and see if studio strobes may be something to upgrade to. Otherwise I think flashes are better for event-style use—bouncing off walls and ceilings.

Sadly, around 2017 my parents started getting very sick. I just did not have the energy to pursue photography and take care of them at the same time. And we really needed the money, so I sold a great deal of my studio gear. And while I was still educating myself about photography during that entire time, I rarely took a photo until shortly after my father died in 2023.

But I am happy to say I am currently building a brand new studio upstairs.

And it is big enough that I don't have to make it a depressing black box. I've started acquiring equipment. People were generous on my recent birthday and I was able to get some new studio lights.

Once I get a beauty dish and some strip softboxes, I'll pretty much be back in business with my studio photography. My friends are going to come over in the next couple of weeks to help me set everything up.

And with my heart seemingly back to normal, I'm really excited to see what photos I may take going forward.

All of this is to say... enjoy your gear journey.

You're going to buy some strange things that probably don't help. And you'll get some gear that you didn't know how you lived without. Just remember the gear doesn't take the photos. And more knowledge always trumps any photo gadget in existence.

I'm always thankful when you tag me and let me know how you're progressing.

Take care and keep shooting!

How I do what I do

The Nikon D600 DSLR and family. From left, SB-900 flash, 28-70mm f/2.8D, 28mm f/2.8D, 50mm f/1.8D, 105mm f/2.8D macro, and 80-200mm f/2.8D. Thanks to KEH for not destroying my wallet as I acquire gear.

Boop to @sirfrogsworth, and hope this finds you feeling better.

[samwisethewitch]

Choosing the right pagan path for you

Finding a religion is kind of like dating — you need to really know yourself before you can know what you need from a religion (or a romantic partner). And, like with dating, there’s a lot of weird stigmas and social expectations around religion. A lot of people want to settle down with the first one they kind of vibe with instead of taking the time to see what’s really out there. But if you really want to be happy in the long term, you’ll need to have a little patience and be willing to do some exploration.

Getting to know yourself is crucial to a healthy spiritual life, no matter what your religious or spiritual beliefs are. Get comfortable with who you are and what your spiritual needs are, then start looking for a system that meets those needs.

Need a place to start? Try interviewing yourself! Here are some questions you may want to include in your self-interview (make sure to write them down!):

What, if anything, do you absolutely know, beyond a shadow of doubt, is true? What, if anything, do you absolutely know, beyond a shadow of doubt, is not true? Do you believe in absolute good and evil? Do you believe in, or are you open to believing in, reincarnation? What about the existence of the soul? What about an afterlife? Do you believe in fate? What about karma or a similar concept? Do you believe that everyone and everything is connected, or are you more of an individualist?

It’s also helpful to go ahead and figure out where you stand on certain religious concepts that are common in paganism. For example, are you a monist, a soft polytheist, a hard polytheist, or a pantheist? Do you feel you’d do better with a neopagan system, a reconstructionist system, or a revivalist system?

Answering these questions will help you start to identify what your core beliefs are and what you need from a religious system. Keep your answers handy. As we explore different pagan religions in future posts, compare their theology and philosophy to your answers. This will help you determine whether any given system is a good fit for you and your existing beliefs.

Remember, most pagan faiths are not exclusionist — they acknowledge the value and truth of other religions. Choosing a pagan path isn’t about finding the One True Religion. It’s about finding the best religion for you. You’re unlikely to find a system that you agree with 100% right off the bat, but you should agree with enough core theology that you aren’t uncomfortable. I firmly believe that religion should challenge us and help us to grow, but it definitely shouldn’t be triggering or upsetting. You want to find that sweet spot where you’re comfortable but still have room for growth.

They say that when choosing a romantic partner, you should look for someone you agree with 90-95% of the time. This similarity in belief and opinion gives you a solid foundation to build on, but the 5-10% disagreement keeps your relationship from becoming an echo chamber. I think this is also an excellent rule to follow when choosing a religion.

Once you’ve taken stock of your own beliefs, it’s time to consider your interests. Is there a certain system you feel drawn to? If so, that would be an excellent place to start your research!

For example, maybe you were obsessed with Greek mythology as a kid — if so, you may want to start by investigating Hellenismos, the worship of the ancient Greek gods. Maybe you grew up Catholic and always felt a close connection to Mother Mary — you may want to investigate Goddess worship. Or maybe you’ve always resonated deeply with the figure of the witch in fiction and folklore — you may want to investigate Wicca. Starting with a system you already have an interest in will keep your research fun and exciting. You may or may not choose to consider your cultural heritage when choosing a starting point for your study of paganism. If you feel closely tied to the culture of your ancestors, you might start by learning about the gods they originally worshiped.

Let me make one thing clear: the gods do not care about genetics. If you feel drawn to the Norse gods, for example, it does not matter if you have Scandinavian heritage or even European heritage. What matters is whether you’re willing to uphold the values and practices of Norse paganism. Don’t let a lack of an ancestral link keep you from pursuing a religion that interests you!

(Of course, ethnic religions do exist, and some of these systems are closed to outsiders. Judaism and Voodoo are good examples of this. However, all of the systems I’ve mentioned in this post, and all of the ones I’ll be covering in this series, are open to anyone regardless of their ethnicity.)

You may not feel connected to your cultural heritage at all, and you may not even consider it as you explore paganism. That’s fine! Just know that it does offer another possible entry point into the big, wide, diverse world of pagan religion.

You should also consider whether any pagan religions are more readily accessible to you than others. Do you have a friend who is already a practicing pagan and would be willing to take you under their wing? Do you live in a country where certain deities used to be worshiped and have access to historic sacred sites? Are there local pagan groups in your community? Consider these resources when deciding where to start your research. The good news is that, with the Internet, you’ll have access to any system you feel attracted to, at least online.

One of the most common accessibility issues pagans run into is a language barrier. This is especially true for reconstructionists and revivalists. Unless you speak fluent Irish, you’ll probably have to rely on English translations for your research of Irish mythology, for example.

Finding quality translations is essential. A translation error can sometimes change the entire meaning of a poem or myth! The best way to find good translations is to ask other pagans. Don’t be afraid to ask someone more experienced for book recommendations!

Once you’ve chosen a starting point for your research, the next step is to start reading! (Still not sure where to start? Don’t worry! In the next several posts in this series, I’ll introduce you to some of the most popular pagan paths and provide resources for more in-depth study.)

Choose your sources carefully. I try to read an even mix of academic sources (which tend to be less biased) and sources from pagan authors — this helps me get a more nuanced understanding of the system I’m studying. Be wary of any resource that denies science, revises history, or contradicts other authorities on the subject. Also be wary of any pagan author who fills their work with opinion and personal experience, without any research to back it up. Basing your practice on good sources will help you start off on the right foot with your worship of the gods.

It’s important not to rush this research process. While it’s true that you can’t truly learn a spiritual system from books, it’s also true that things tend to go more smoothly if you know what you’re doing. Once you’ve got a solid grasp of the basics of your chosen religion, you’re ready to begin practicing! Start using what you’ve learned from your research to create a religious practice. This may include creating an altar or other sacred space, making offerings to deities, or performing some other daily ritual. My advice is to start small — don’t feel like you have to become a high priest(ess) overnight.

Your practice may change as you become more experienced, and that’s a good thing. People change, and it only makes sense for our spirituality to change with us. Never be afraid to experiment in your pagan practice. This should be a fun and exciting journey!

[cantabile-l]

Okay but what about Omega!Bucky nesting???? HC plz 🥺

So I swear this took forever to answer because - ghrjiwruw and like *gestures at* fjebjdjdjwj and !!!!! and then 🥺🥺🥺 etc ad nauseum. But PLEASE SEND ME MORE ASKS.

Okay. First of all. THE NEST ITSELF. In my mind, omega Bucky of all pairings - baby bucks, canon bucks, shrunkyclunks buck - his nest is paramount. Ideally, I'm going with a baby bucky or a canon Bucky where they have the means and resources of a home with Steve so that he has a nest that's all to himself for everyday nesting, in addition to his mating nest he shares with his alpha, i.e. their bed.

His nests must be soft, cozy, enclosed, and with a bit of light (he's had enough of darkness poor buck buck 🥺) may I present the following visual aids:

First off, this is my favourite and the base nest I'm working off of. Note the two enclosed walls to give pre-heat Bucky a sense of safety but all layered in softness. Bonus points to the multiple body pillows. Now add on the warm lights for maximum coziness, perfect for nesting comfort.

Now that's not all, but what about this fourth wall? It's not an enclosed space! Like we all know, feral omegas reverting to their instincts will often nest in closets, where they can be fully enclosed. Now this Bucky knows he's safe, but as we see here below, adding a curtain to close off his nest adds a barrier of security (even if just mentally). Important also because this emphasizes that this is the omega's space. Bucky being able to control entry into his nest with this added "gate" means that even Steve, his alpha, must only enter his omega's nest with Bucky's consent. (Extra important when Bucky’s mad and needs his own space - Steve’s gotta grovel to earn his nest entry privileges)

Last touches, Bucky would also like a variety of soft textures - different weaves of pillows, knit blankets, jersey cotton, soft fuzzy Sherpa throws.

Okay now we move onto omega Bucky actually NESTING.

First, obviously Bucky would be clingy and possessive to his alpha, Steve. This manifests in a few different ways. If possible, ideally he’d just have Steve with him, within sight if not within reach. However, this isn’t Bucky in heat, he likes his alpha nearby while nesting because instincts demand that he needs to keep his alpha nearby in case his heat does set in at any time. It’s biological during his nesting period to feel anxious, keyed up, antsy when he doesn’t have his alpha nearby. 

But other fun part of biology and hormones? Bucky is a moody little shit. Half the time he’s cuddly and affectionate and wants his alpha nearby, especially when some of the aches and pains starts setting in. He craves Steve’s comforting presence before everything just turns into mindless lust and fuck, swears that Steve’s gentle hands on his shoulders, rubbing his back, petting his head, helps soothe his mind and body better than any Midol or other meds. The other half the time:

god STEVE just stop doing whatever you’re doin--no that doesn’t mean leave the room jesus can you just NOT? (”Not what, baby?” Steve being a patient motherfucker but even he’s getting frustrated) I don’t KNOW just ugh -slams his nest curtains close- NO don’t LEAVE the room though, Steve! ( “So you want me to just stay here?... On the other side of the curtain?...”) YES stay here but I just don’t want to see your face is it that hard-

Considering all the heat sex that will soon follow in the coming days, Steve learns to just deal with nesting-homones-addled-Bucky. 

However, contrary to common stereotypes of omegas being needy therefore weak, Bucky being possessive also means he’s aggressive and strong. There’s the biological instincts to keep Steve, his alpha, nearby for his heat setting in at any moment, which are also the same primal instincts that drive him to keep his alpha as well. Now Steve preens under this attention, but in public, gotta be careful to not start a scene. Catch Bucky growling and practically spitting at any other omega who gets too close to Steve, a friendly omega working the cash who bats her eyelashes just once gets a death glare, a nice waiter gulps and keeps his distance after Bucky voices a low threatening growl - basically anyone who might even dare trying to lure his alpha away from him finds themselves at the end of Bucky’s ire. Omegas aren’t just needy helpless things, especially strong confident omegas like Bucky? Bucky is a damn possessive territorial omega mf-er when it comes to his alpha. 

But of course, you’ve got your traditional soffie nesting behaviours too, even with our badass omega buck. He’s damn good at building nests if he can say so himself. Around this time, Bucky’s definitely augmenting them with laundry from Steve’s pile. Shirts and maybe even boxers (Bucky definitely tries to stuff those in discretely - shush - no one needs to know) are intertwined with the pillow walls and throws. But sometimes that’s not enough. That’s when Steve will be lassoed into the nest for a nice cuddle session or a romp through the sheets (literally - Bucky rolls Steve around in the nest to really mark his scent in). Bucky’s nerves tend to be especially shot with nesting hormones. But xanax can’t compare to crawling into his well-scented and broken-in nest, and just being enveloped by both his and Steve’s scents, mingling together into a single scent that’s not easily distilled into its components, but just suffuses feelings that go straight to Bucky’s core: love, safety, comfort - home. 

[gracehcreates-bct]

W8 Studio - Project into the public

X-Challenge

I entered my team into X-Challenge, but unfortunately our group was too big to do the whole project so we split ourselves into two and did the app and boot cleaner as seperate ideas.

Boot Cleaner Prototype

Kent made a boot cleaner prototype over the weekend, using cardboard and pvc pipes. Not included is the spray, which would be situated underneath the boot.

Survey Results

I sent out the survey on facebook, first to the Creative Technologies Year 3 page and then my neighbourhood community’s page. So far there are 62 responses.

1. How often do you go on walking trails?

Once a week - 11 people Once fortnightly - 7 people Once a month - 23 people Once a year - 18 people Never - 3 people

2. Who would you usually take with you? (pick between 1 - 2)

Family - 46 people Friends - 19 people Dogs - 12 people No-one - 11 people

3. Have you heard of the Kauri Dieback Disease?

61/62 people have heard of Kauri Dieback.

4. If yes, how do you think preventing it is to New Zealand’s forests in the future? (on a scale of 1 - 10)

Average is 9.1, with 6 out of 60 people who answered this question ranking it below 8.

5. What would make the boot cleaner more convienent?

About 17 out of 62 thought that the boot cleaner was fine as it is. Two people answered there should be more of them.

Answers about the station itself: - Maybe if it was longer so you can keep moving as you clean. So others don’t get held up behind you. - If more people could use it at the same time. - Maybe a larger, flatter station - Proper set up like your picture - as some are only a mat and can easily be avoided - A seat to sit on when spraying shoes with the stuff. Very hard to work hose on one foot with a pack on - Regular servicing - I guess it's a bit of a bottle neck, depending on the popularity of the trial maybe it holds people up? - Have more of an obstacle that makes it so you get in slower. Therefore, making you clean your shoes more thoroughly? :D - Better maintenance sometimes they are worn out - Clearer instructions Easier to use Maybe a video

Answers about boot cleaner: - I guess if it rotated it might get more sit out from the grooves? Also, with covid I try to avoid touching anything and this this old style and the spray gun you have to touch - Have a cleaner for jandals. This one doesn’t work so well - Foot activated sprays. Physical barriers that force people to activate the spray to get thru the barrier. - Weight based means children and lighter people don't activate it so perhaps something that doesn't get activated by weight that you walk through. Shallow enough to just cover sole of shes/boots - Maybe some foot level spray system. Sometimes balancing on one foot to spray is tricky - the spray trigger should have a novel so that it covers each shoe in one spray - Fixed brushes as shown here. The hand squirter and hand brush combination is too difficult to manage. Lose balance and give up - A hand held brush to scrub the side of shoes. - No spray, just scrub and step - A device to clamp around shoes and spray all around - Rotating brushes - Making the brushes not worn down. Last bush walk I went on the brushes for your feet were too worn down and didn’t work very well - Bending down is tricky so a system that doesn’t make you bend over is good - If it always had disinfectant in it. - It having the spray stuff in it and not be empty - Not have to use the hand spray bottle that is found on some stations. - Find it ok as it is, but prefer the one that sprays your shoes when you stand on it to the hand held one - Automatic - probably some type of automated boot cleaner - I am liking the new "hop on to spray" pads

Other: - It’s fine but something to keep the spray from coming up and wetting your shoes and ankles would be good-keep it to the soles - designing something the birds might use, as it's far more likely to be transmitted by them. - An agent that actually is proven as working on phytophthora - I think the boots cleaners are possibly okay, it's the dogs i always think , might be more carriers especially as often off lead when they shouldn't be. - Nothing. I think it’s clearly marked with instructions and you can’t miss them at the beginning and end of tracks. One time there was a DOC guy there educating people how to clean boots properly which was helpful cos I had actually been doing the process the wrong way around prior to that! - RGB LEDs, to attract the kids - maybe having someone employed by like doc or something to make sure there are ppl washing their shoee

6. How effective do you think the covid tracer app was in preventing the spread of covid-19? (on a scale of 1 - 10)

Average is 7.3, with only 5 people out of 62 ranking it below a 5.

7.  We are designing an app and deciding on the content, what is most appealing to you?

Treasure Hunt - #1.82 average Augmented Reality boot cleaner - #2.06 average Running statistics tracker - #2.11 average

8.  Why did you choose the previous answer? Otherwise, give us an example of something you’d like to see on it.

About 5/46 people answered that they couldn’t see the image I had used, which is my own fault but the survey website is difficult to understand. 4/46 directly said “Treasure Hunts are fun”. Two people said it didn’t matter as long as it was simple to use.

- Statistics can drive behaviour - Treasure hunt appeals to families using tracks - There is a general lack of information about Kauri Dieback at the boot cleaning stations especially Tane Mahuta - information would result in adherence - The question wasn’t clear to me so I chose the fun option. No idea what AR boot cleaner is - maybe I didn’t click on something? - Seemed the most applicable (Augmented Reality) - Didn’t really have a view. Not sure what the point of the treasure hunt and A4 - I just think the treasure hunt idea has more appeal. Not clear how it works - A map of dieback - Information on Kauri on the area you are about to walk in, how many, if have any signs of disease - Definitely make it fun to use, stats make it interesting - learn with play: Tree/ nature trivia, e.g. like: what tree is this? (photo) - Sounds more fun (Treasure Hunt) - Fun makes things engaging. Also, running is boring. - Treasure hunt might make it more interesting for the grandchildren I take hiking. I know what AR is but I cannot imaging it being useful for book cleaning. - Links with GPS - Easy to find information for the novice /infrequent tramper - I didn't see how the answers linked to the app. What's the purpose of the app? If it's just to track like the covid app it doesn't need anything else on it. Most people who run in the bush would use another app already. - if i got it my main , objective would be to help with Die-back .Stats would be interesting so No.2,Treasure hunt No.3 , as kids grown up , but even if younger i might have put 3 , but would be good for younsters - I may take my child if there is a treasure hunt as part of the app/walk - The AR boot cleaner would encourage people to clean their shoes properly because it would make cleaning more fun and accurate. - I like stats - and I like the new aspect of the covid app where you get a little sticker icon when you get 14 days diary entry. - Got to be something interesting and fun. Maybe as an incentive add in spot prizes provided by possible sponsors.. - NZ health statistics - Interactive is fun and makes you feel involved - More visually appealing (Treasure Hunt) - More fun makes people more likely to use. - Don't understand what the boot one is - Routes recommendation, especially secret/not popular spots. Treasure hunting is a bit like that - Treasure hunt seems rewarding. AR seems interactive. Statistics sound boring - I think that if you make it a sort of game it will encourage people to get into the nitty gritty parts of shoe! - Not sure why I'd want a virtual boot cleaner tbh. Other content could be birds to look out for.. bit of history, exercise tips - Helps me know which parts of my boots are clean :)

9.  Thank you for taking the time to do this. Any other ideas/feedback for us?

- Anything to help contain the spread and educate people is good-Tane Mahuta was our first experience and there was no information and no reception to be able to Google it. - Would love people to be encouraged to use the boot wash more. - Good idea to encourage behaviours that will stop the spread. Well done - no, its communist propaganda - I develop apps myself, but I am doubtful about their applicability to Kauri Dieback reduction - An alarm when boots are not cleaned properly. - Still not sure what your app will do. - Good luck , please put a reminder if possible the importance of dogs on leads in areas where needed.PS We do own a dog! - Thank you for your work - I put 10 as meaning it is very important. You don’t say how the scale works though - Kauri Dieback poses a serious issue and I'm glad theres a project looking at this!! 🙌 - I would just try to be really focused on the problem you want to solve. Is it boot cleaning, is it awareness, is it history, is it fitness

Additionally Miles emailed Dr Gerth, so we have an interview with her on May 27th.

[jamiesmcstuff]

Web Authoring Blog

10/01/21

The past week I have been working on my assignment through Wordpress. The assignment is to install and build our own wordpress site on the college server. This was a basic enough assignment but I did encounter some problems along the way. Firstly, I had a problem connecting to the college server, which meant I was required to get a new password from IT, and that took up some time.Once I could connect to the server I successfully connected to the server, and uploaded wordpress to filezilla. 

I also encountered a problem trying to activate a child theme on my wordpress site. I didn’t realise that my .css file in my wordpress folder had an extra full stop where it shouldn’t have been, and it was breaking my up the code when I tried to activate my child theme on the wordpress site. Once I figured this out (which took some time) I found that I had a lot of fun with this assignment. 

It was great to play around with all the various features of wordpress. Somethings I did find a little strange and a bit unintuitive (such as accessing certain editing functions from the front end site) but I I got used to the workflow the more time I spent on it. I do feel like I ran out of time and had to eventually settle with what I had for the assignment but I am keen to continue working on the site I had created in order to improve my skills using Wordpress, and having something good to add to my portfolio. 

22/12/20

Last week we covered CMS systems and. It seems like it should be straight forward, however if I have learned anything so far its that sometimes coding can seem straightforward, but due to lack of experience simple problems can be difficult to figure. Wordpress, however, looks great a a system to use.

As soon as we started learning it I could think of difficult examples of blogs and websites that have used Wordpress as a platform to great effect, and I am excited to start using the platform properly. It seems that once you start using Wordpress, and get used to the workflow, you can create really great looking websites with minimal effort. 

There are so many different customizations meaning you can be very creative with Wordpress. I am excited to start using some other CMS systems in order to see how they compare against Wordpress anf figure out whether Wordpress is the best option for me as a system to use going forward.  

16/12/20

This was our first week covering Wordpress and CMS systems. I had heard from multiple sources regarding the unintuitiveness of WordPress but that definitely was not my initial thought. It potentially could have been outdated by other CMS that came after it, but as a platform it seems very powerful if you know how to use it correctly.

My mind automatically started thinking ahead in terms of how platforms like wordpress could be used by web designers, and myself hopefully when the time comes, to build comprehensive and sophisticated web pages for clients. 

We had a reading week so had no class on the 12th of December, but on the 11th we also had to submit assignment 2, which was our personal profile web page. It was a tough task, but I believe I got a good result for my first attempt at creating a web page. One problem I encountered, that I was very satisfied to find a solution for, was aligning an image of the Griffith college logo to the right of the footer. After numerous attempts at finding a solution ( and tearing out a lot of hair) I eventually entered a <p> into the footer and cleared the floats within the style sheet which aligned the image up correctly. 

2/12/20

Last week’s lecture covered Flex boxes. I think it may have been the first time we were exposed to any kind of framework that can simplify the building of web pages to some degree. From what I understand, tasks pertaining to the layout of elements on a page can be strenuous in terms of writing the html and css code; but flex boxes are effective in streamlining this process through their own unique set of rules. 

I found Flex boxes easy to understand because, to the best of my knowledge, flexbox follows similar cascading and hierarchical principles as are the  fundamentals in other parts of coding we have learned. For example, the container is a parent and everything contained within (items) are children; akin to how a <section> element is a parent to a child <p> element contained within that section. I am starting to see how coding language is very complicated, but is designed to try and be as user friendly as is possible; there is a consistent way to think structurally about code that will benefit me and help me to troubleshoot problems I may have down the line. 

25/11/20

Last week's lecture we covered color, links, layouts and floats. There was pats that seemed to be as straightforward as our previous lecture, and I found myself easily able to keep up in terms of what we were learning. For example with color, it was easy for me to understand how color can be applied to different elements. Also, I like how there are different ways that things can be applied through CSS, for example there being a choice to apply colour by percentage, or by hex values.  

However, there I had two main takeaways from this class. The first, which I was already aware of but hadn’t yet been covered in class, is that CSS isn't just about visuals, parts of the page can be laid out in various ways by applying different rules. Floats do seem complicated, but once I get some experience using them I know it’ll be a massive part of building web pages, so it's something I am eager to get practice in. 

The second take away, which I hadn’t pre-empted as a possibility with CSS, is the 5 styles that are applied to links on a web page. This was very interesting, and I was surprised, because I had thought that Javascript was the coding language for integrating interactivity on a web page. However, pertaining to our upcoming assignments, it is somewhat of a relief to know that more basic functions such as the 5 styles for links can be applied through CSS, without having to yet know javascript.  

18/11/20

Last Saturday we had our first lecture that introduced CSS. A few things we covered were rules, IDs, classes and the cascading specificity of CSS. From the first introduction it seems to be straight forward enough, however once applied into a practical context I am sure there will be a lot of barriers to overcome in order to get competent with CSS. Seeing the difference between how a basic html page looks, without CSS, and then the possibilities once CSS has been applied was exciting. 

I have found html relatively easy thus far, and it is very satisfying once the code does what you intended. However, it doesn't make things look beautiful, so seeing the difference between a page with and without CSS, and what the possibilities can be, was very exciting. Gemma used the example of the Griffith website, with and without the CSS, and the reality of what's possible once I get to using CSS became a reality. 

SImilar to writing html, and the application of good practice and bad practice in terms of writing code ; we learned in last week's lecture the difference between inline CSS and stylesheets, and how the latter is the preferred method of applying CSS. Even though it would seem easier to write CSS within the same file as html, I am very conscious now of ensuring that I do not fall into bad habits in terms of I write any coding language as I hope to day be hired based on the quality of the work that I provide, so will avoid developing bad habits at any cost.

10/11/20

Last Saturday 7th November lecture covered semantic html and the structure of web pages. The previous lecture on links, images and tables had demonstrated and actualized for me the building blocks that web developers use across the board for different features of websites. Our most recent lecture built upon that knowledge and made me understand how semantic html is used to break up the different parts/sections of a website so that browsers can digest it and for SEO. 

When practicing at home writing the code for articles and sections, which as I understand act as mini web pages within a web page,the muscle memory of writing code is improving physically writing code while also ingraining in me the concept of nesting code, and how hierarchy within that nested code is structured. The analogy of the Russian dolls has been mentioned numerous times and this week it became more applicable than before as a way to look at how you wrap up your code into structured pieces. 

The easiest way for me to visualise semantic html in action was looking at online newspapers. Through looking at a few examples I could see how the home pages in particular are structured because they have so much content and articles etc that are irrelevant to each other. It's necessary to use semantic html to give meaning to each bit of content in order to direct internet users to relevant parts of the web page. One thing I never preempted, again in my own naivety/ignorance, was how integrated SEO is with the information contained within html. As a side project I think I will go and read up some more about digital marketing. 

We were also required to do some practical exercise on forms this week. One thing of note, I had seen in previous lectures how values can indicate what happens when a user clicks on a link (opening in a new tab etc). Relative to values such as input/emails it’s interesting to see how these values can indicate how a specific entry of information into a data field, such as an email address, is handled. Also, the content we covered briefly touched on empty elements which I was not expecting as they don't follow the same rule set we had previously learned. I had expected there to be some as there are exceptions to rules in any language and html is no different evidently. 

03/11/20

Our most recent lecture covered the topics of tables, links, images. As I mentioned in my previous post I was initially happy to be able to keep up with the material and didn't feel too far out of my depth. This week I am happy to say that I am still feeling positive about the decision to move into this new world and potential change of career.

With just two weeks under my belt I  could already feel a change in how I will view websites going forward. As a user I had always thought, naively, of websites as eclectic; their features and functions presented as specific to the brand or organisation that they represent. However, during this lab, and particularly regarding the topic of tables, I began to visualize how they are all the same components put together by developers in different ways that serve the same functions. 

Telecommunication companies websites and how they present their pricing online was one such feature that came to mind. Previously I would have thought that their pricing was just an image integrated within the web page but now I obviously understand that it is built through a specific <table> element that is adjustable by a front end developer. 

I had a thought on the topic of images and their applicability in different parts of a web page also. Having worked as an outbound salesman for the last couple of years I looked at a lot of websites to find clients. Obviously, a company's budget has to be considered when considering the quality of a website but from what I observed there are some elements of websites that are perhaps ignored or rushed by developers, are not budget dependent, and can give a website a cheaper or less professional look.

I think the two screenshots below corroborate my point above; B2Bs logo on the home page of their site is slightly pix-elated while Hunt Office’s (one of the biggest office supplies companies in Ireland) logo looks smooth and gives it a cleaner look, which as the first thing a user sees when clicking onto a home page immediately portrays a better level of professionalism than that of B2B. 

I am trying not to think too far ahead in terms of the end goal of being in this course, and this module, because I have a long way to go and an extremely vast discipline to cover before any of that will happen. Thinking too far ahead would be daunting for me so its better to sit back and enjoy the process of learning each part as it comes.

27/10/20

This web authoring module is the reason I decided to do this interactive digital media course. I have come from working in sales the last couple of years and wanted to make a complete career change. For that reason it was very important I acquired proper tangible skills that allowed me to make that change and I felt coding was up there with the best of options. 

Our first lecture last Saturday was about HTML. From what I understand, we are learning HTML at the best time up to date as its been consolidated into one format that everyone in the western world abides by and is uniform so a lot of complications can be avoided across the board for developers and users alike. 

The lecture primarily focused on elements and I was happy, and relieved, that I could keep up with the material and didn’t get too lost as this is all totally new territory for me. I enjoyed the lecture thoroughly as HTML seems logical and if you follow the right steps it does what you want it to do. I am looking forward to starting practice, getting the muscle memory working and moving toward that career change I need. 

[dippedanddripped]

Nearly four million students across the United States have no access to music education, despite its documented positive effects on cognitive function and academic performance. Now, thanks to famous figures like Panic! At the Disco lead vocalist Brendon Urie and non-profit Notes for Notes, children and young adults can explore their musical talents regardless of their financial situation.

Notes for Notes began when then-parking lot valet Philip Gilley convinced the city of Santa Barbara to give him some space where he could set up a music studio. He had been mentoring a youngster through Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and figured music was a fun activity they could share.

"But there was no place to go and do that," he said.

Fellow Big Brother Rod Hare soon partnered with him when he said he realized he had the same idea years earlier.

"I said, 'You know we could do this anywhere'," Hare recalled. "'You could put one of these in any city in America. Would you be willing to make this your life's work?'"

A little over a decade later, Notes for Notes has 25 studios in 16 cities, and has attracted some famous mentors.

"If I had access to this studio at these kids' age, I would have been much more well prepared and well versed for the music industry. When 'Panic' was started, we just head-dived first in," Brendon Urie told CBS News' Michelle Miller. "Not knowing what things to be wary of, what things to jump into. Yeah, definitely would've helped to have some kind of guidance like, this is how you write a song, this is how you produce something."

Urie said he was "floored" by the talent he saw in the children and young adults in the program. "These kids are phenomenal. It blows my mind," he said.

The teens have no trouble relating to Urie either, despite his pop star status.

"He's famous, but at his core, he's a guy who sings," young musician Tae McKinney said. "It's not hard to have a conversation with someone you can relate to."

"I’ll always have Notes for Notes to thank for so many memorable moments throughout my musical journey, including meeting @brendonurie & attending @lollapalooza for the first time ever." - Devon, aka D-Vo. Read his entire interview here! @StateFarm https://bit.ly/2kQ3Gcb

Gilley said that providing access for free is important for the children's development.

"They can get all the instruments, they can get all the resources for free, no barriers to entry of not being able to afford something, or it not being available in school. And then sort of that way you learn would be more about building a bond with someone, as you're focused on learning something together," he said.  

Teens like 15-year-old Demelle Cooley do not take the gift for granted. When asked what importance having access to these facilities meant to him, he replied, "It's power I haven't felt before. But like, with that kind of power I can change what's around me."

Others, like Zuzu Black, said that it was the equipment in the facilities that help her grow as a musician and have made it possible for her to produce her song, "Tide."

"It's not just like walking into your school band room," she said. "It's more like here's what you can get out of all this stuff – express yourself better as an artist and a person."

At the end of the day, Gilley says, "music has the power to change lives."

"That means many different things for some children," he explained. "We give them those tools of confidence, creativity, compassion, and community. That if they know it can exist here, then it can exist wherever they go next, and that transpires in their lives."

[trans-advice]

Easy Makeup Tips That Literally Anyone Can Follow

By

Brit + Co, Contributor

Brit + Co connects you with innovative ideas, apps, and products that add creativity and simplicity to your everyday life.02/08/2016 05:15pm EST | Updated December 7, 2017

This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site.

Don't get us wrong: We love a show-stopping makeup look as much as the next girl. But makeup basics are important. They're what help you with your base makeup routine that gets you ready in just five minutes flat every. single. day. and the hacks that can take you from office to date in just a few simple steps. We spend a lot of time breaking beauty down to the essentials, but here, we're going even further into 101 territory: we're talking a what's what of your makeup kit. Whether you've glossed over the nitty gritty of each product or are just learning how to build a routine that fits your personality or schedule, consider this your guide to keeping makeup simple and approachable. This foundation of knowledge can also be your stepping stone into the more advanced, creative ways to use makeup. Here's everything you need to know about makeup basics and how to use them.

Foundation + Concealer

Foundation: Beyond your skincare routine, foundation is what makes your skin appear flawless; it evens out your skin tone and conceals any subtle blemishes or discolorations on your face. The most important aspect of foundation to consider is coverage. Generally speaking, there are two ways to go. If you want lighter coverage then opt for a tinted moisturizer, a slightly colored cream that you can swipe on with your fingers to give your skin a wash of color. This is the lazy girl's M.O. If you're interested in more coverage then liquid foundation -- the classic form of foundation -- is your best bet. This foundation is best applied with either your fingers, a flat synthetic foundation brush or a sponge blender.

Take it to the next level with concealer: When you really want to be sleuthy, add concealer to your routine. It's your go-to for things like covering blemishes and more apparent skin discolorations, and can also be used to brighten and even out your under eye area. Concealer comes in different mediums like creams, sticks and liquids. Similarly to foundation, you'll pick your product based on the level of coverage you need for your skin type.

Bronzer + Highlighter

Bronzer: Imagine bronzer as sunshine in powder form. When you apply foundation to your skin you even out your skin tone, but you're also getting rid of the natural shadows and highlights on your face. Think of the bronzer as your way to use shadow to create depth or to give the illusion of moving a part of your face back. This is the first step to adding warmth and dimension back into your face. The "right" bronzer for your skin tone should look like a naturally tan version of you, not too orange and not too dark.

For extra illumination use highlighter: Highlighter is essentially the opposite of your bronzer. Rather than making a part of your face look smaller, you will use the brightness of a highlighter to bring out areas of your face (When you see images of a gal who has that glowing dewy-looking skin, there is a very good chance that she is wearing highlighter. Secrets revealed!). You can get highlighters that are golden, pearlescent and opalescent. There are also other variations, such as matte highlighter, which gives you the brightness without the shimmer. Finding a highlighter that works well on your skin tone and for your personality is pretty simple.

Blush + Cream Blush

Blush: When you're not wearing any makeup, you'll be able to see a natural flush of color on your cheeks. But again, after applying a little foundation, you're covering that up in attempt to get a more even base to work with. Enter blush, the product that adds life to your features (um yeah, you can wear blush on more parts of your face than just your cheeks). Because blush comes in so many hues, you can take it literally and match your natural flush or use a more playful hue to make your look more vibrant. Typically, beginners will wear powder blush because it's usually easier to apply for a more natural finish.

Pump it up with cream blush: Cream blush is a really fun way to take wearing blush to another level -- it's more pigmented, and therefore a bolder way to wear blush. To take it even further, you can apply a cream blush as your base and set it in place with a powder blush for an even brighter punch of color that will last all day.

Eyeshadow + Smokey Eye

Eyeshadow: When it's used on its own as a single shade, eyeshadow is purely cosmetic. As a minimalist or beginner, you can apply a sweep of a single shadow across your eyelid for a subtle pop of color.

Get your blend on with a smokey eye: For a more advanced gal who wants to take eyeshadow to the next level there's the smokey eye. The concept here is to create dimension using a base shade, highlight shade and contour shade just like you would do on your face, but focusing on your eyelids only. You can use endless color combinations as long as you keep the basic approach the same. To build a dramatic look, use a neutral color on your eyelids, a deeper medium hue in your creases and a brighter shadow on your brow bones and the inside corners of your eyes.

Eyeliner + Brow Pencil

Eyeliner: Eyeliner is all about enhancing the shape and color of your eyes. There are several techniques you can use, but beginners should keep application simple by using a pencil along their lower lash line to create definition and along the upper lash line to make eyelashes look fuller. Simple as that.

For further definition use a brow pencil: The idea of filling in your eyebrows can be a little intimidating for the gal who has never gone there, but once you're ready to accentuate your eyes further, this is the way to go. Eyebrow enhancement can actually change the entire look of your face -- this is why we're considering it a more advanced makeup route. You can try powders, creams and other variations of mediums, but the easiest way to fill in and shape your eyebrows tends to be an eyebrow pencil that you can get in a hue to complement the natural color of your eyebrows.

Mascara + Eyelash Curler

Mascara: This was actually my gateway to makeup; I wore mascara before anything else. Mascara is a great way to give your entire face a little extra pop without having to learn all the other techniques. I recommend that you pick a mascara that's not waterproof to start because it will be much easier to take off later. The formulas are typically designed to enhance length or volume and the biggest actual difference is usually the shape of the brush. Try to find a mascara that has a smaller application brush so you can have more control when putting it on.

Turn up the volume with an eyelash curler: This device looks scary as heck (I always make sure to be gentle with this little contraption), but it's totally clutch when it comes to getting va-va-voom lashes. It's a must for certain looks, but you have to make sure you use it correctly or else you can -- eek! -- break or rip out your eyelashes. Be sure to watch a tutorial that offers tips and tricks as to how to use it properlly before you get on this train!

Lip Color + Lip Liner

Lip Color: We're not just talking color -- the choices are endless -- but we're also talking types of lip color. There's lip balm, gloss, tints, creme sticks and stains. The main difference you should be aware of is that each one carries a different level of pigment, aka the amount of color that will show up on your pout; this can vary from brand to brand. The easiest intro to lip color is to start off with the less pigmented options and work your way up to the bolder hues that take more effort to apply and maintain.

For an even more perfect pucker use lip liner: While lip liner is a next-level product, it's one that I highly recommend using whenever you choose to wear any type of lipstick or darker pigmented lip color. Lip liners essentially create a barrier to keep the lipstick on your lips and prevent the color from bleeding or feathering onto the perimeter of your mouth. In other words, it's the secret to totally kissable lips.

For more beauty + DIY tutorials, check out brit.co!

[coolgreatwebsite]

Cool Games I Finished In 2019 (In No Real Order)

We’re here. The end of the decade. 2019 was a weird, turbulent year for me. Despite my cross-country move already being a year behind me somehow, nothing’s really settled yet. Living situation is still weird, still separated from most of my belongings, I left my full-time QA job for a contractor position at a mobile game advertising company that may or may not convert into a full-time position... everything about what’s going on with me still just feels like I’m completely winging it, and while that’s not a position I’m really comfortable being in for such an extended amount of time, everything seems to be working out okay enough despite it. All this is probably why I spent most of my time playing the shit out of a handful of games rather than playing a bunch of different games this year! Needed some sort of stability. Also when I did manage to pull myself away from the timesink games and play something else, a lot of them ranged from “okay” to “real bad”. But I still managed to play just enough stuff that I liked to where I can put out yet another one of these.  Here’s a bunch of cool games I experienced for the first time in 2019.

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC, 2005)

I haven’t bothered to do two thirds of the story quests yet and have barely touched any Episode 4 content so this game technically doesn’t count for this list, but if I left it off I would be neglecting to mention an extremely large portion of my video game playing time this year. I fell back into PSO preeeettty hard this year after the surprise announcement of Phantasy Star Online 2 finally coming to the US. Guess what: game still rules. It feels stiff to play and it’s obviously far less expansive than it seemed back in 2000, but the core of Phantasy Star Online is still as fun as it ever was and the aesthetics are still entirely my shit. I love everything about the way this game looks and sounds, I love stumbling on a weird new weapon, I love participating in the custom seasonal events the server I’m on runs, and I love how oddly relaxing the experience of playing this game and taking it all in is. I will probably continue to play Phantasy Star Online into 2020. I will probably still dip back into it after PSO2 US servers finally launch. If I know you and you want to join my Discord server for PSO get at me. PSO forever.

Cookie’s Bustle (PC, 1999)

You ever play a game that just speaks to you? Even through a language barrier? A game so incredibly out there and bizarre in the exact way you love that you can’t help but adore it despite barely understanding it? Holy moly did I ever find that game. I learned about Cookie’s Bustle through a news story last year about some rare games leaking from a Japanese collector’s stash. Didn’t manage to get it to run back then, but my off and on attempts to get it working finally paid off in March of this year and I’m so glad I kept trying. I knew nothing of this game other than it had a weird name and was about a bear doing sports, and it turned out to be a fully voice-acted and mostly unsubtitled adventure game starring Cookie Blair, a 5 year old girl from New Jersey who sees herself as a teddy bear and has traveled to Bombo World, an island nation once visited by aliens and currently in the middle of a civil war, to participate in the Bombo Sports Tournament. Dead level, I probably shouldn’t have been able to genuinely love Cookie’s Bustle as much as I did. The only context I had for what was happening and what I was supposed to do was provided by a 20-year-old Google translated walkthrough with broken images, the game’s slightly higher than usual reliance on English loan words, and 30-ish years of video games and anime allowing me to halfway pick up on a handful of Japanese words. However, Cookie’s Bustle is dripping with an undeniable and off-beat charm that genuinely transcends language. Even if you can’t understand the words and specifics, you can understand the basic plot, characterizations, and emotions they’re going for. Cookie’s Bustle manages to both be completely off-the-wall bizarre and feel totally genuine and heartfelt at the same time, a balance very few games manage to successfully hit but many of my favorites do. One could say that’s why it seems to have resonated with a decent amount of other people this year, too. Games rarely make me feel sad that they’re over. but when they do that’s how I know they’re one of the good ones. Seriously, go look up a longplay or stream of Cookie’s Bustle if you (understandably) don’t want to go through the hassle of setting it up and figuring out how to play it, it’s impossible not to love.

Devil May Cry 5 (PlayStation 4, 2019)

Here’s something crazy to think about: Devil May Cry 4 came out 11 years ago. Aside from being a potent reminder that time is moving too fast and we’re all going to die soon, that means that there hasn’t been a DMC for over a decade. Devil May Cry 5 does not bare this fact even a little bit. Not only did they pick up right where they left off and manage to make another Devil May Cry game without missing a beat, they made arguably the best Devil May Cry game. I mean I still like the story and single-character focus of DMC3 the best, but DMC5 is the best playing game in the series without a doubt. Nero finally feels like he has a complete and complex toolset, Dante is the most mechanically dense and fun to play he’s ever been, and they even added a new guy that’s... neat to play as, until you start trying to S-rank the harder difficulties. Then he’s kind of annoying to play as. But it’s still cool that they tried something totally different and mostly got it to work! They also did something very stupid that I love and used this game as an excuse to make literally every single piece of Devil May Cry media canon. Like, characters exclusively from the anime and the books show up and act like they’re someone you already know and love? And they go out of their way to explain the most esoteric lore shit possible?? And despite it all they still intentionally give DMC2 as short a shrift as they can??? It’s so dumb, it rules. It’s just one of the many things about the game that show that even with so long of a gap between entries, no love for the series was lost by the people that make it. I don’t think the suits at Capcom expected this game to hit as hard as it did though, because despite there being clear areas where the game could be expanded on with DLC there still hasn’t been anything announced. I hope they’re maybe saving it for some sort of DMC3-esque special edition, or maybe just already working on DMC6, because even after getting all S-ranks I still wanted to play more. The game’s just that damn good.

Hypnospace Outlaw (PC, 2019)

I expected very little from Hypnospace Outlaw. I backed the game on Kickstarter solely because it looked cool and I thought a game about fake GeoCities was neat, and then I immediately forgot about it until it released. Admittedly my lack of expectations stemmed mostly from the fact that it’s kind of hard to set expectations for a game you never really thought too hard about, but even in the brief period of time where I considered it enough to give it money, I never expected it to be much more than a pretty-looking 101 Great GeoCities Jokez delivery vehicle. Boy was I wrong. I mean, it is incredibly good at that, but Hypnospace Outlaw is so much more than a funny period piece. The basic premise is that you’re in alternate universe 1999 and have just become a community moderator for an Internet service provider that allows people to connect to the Internet while they sleep. You’re tasked with browsing the game’s weird fake Internet and issuing demerits to users who violate the five basic Hypnospace rules, but it quickly evolves into something way bigger. Hypnospace Outlaw’s greatest strength is its exceptional ability at weaving together subtle world building, small and engaging character arcs, esoteric microjokes, and a genuine sense of mystery and discovery into an incredibly cohesive and engaging package. It’s as much a game about the people that use and run its weird fake Internet as it is about that weird fake Internet itself. And a lot of the problems both face echo the problems we face with our real world Internet today. When I was mapping out writing this article like a month or two ago I was prepared to go on about how at its core, Hypnospace Outlaw is an incredibly poignant story about how uncaring tech corporations actively harm their users and always have, but then a couple of days ago I read Colin Spacetwinks’ game of the year list and his #1 entry put most everything I would have said about that topic down in a way more eloquent and well-written way than I ever could have. And then I remembered that Friend Of The Site Heidi Kemps covered some of the same angle but from the perspective of the early Internet in an article earlier this year, again way better than I could have. So I highly recommend you read those when you’re done here. What I wanna bring up instead is just how effortlessly surprising and interconnected a lot of stuff in Hypnospace feels, using a mildly spoiler-ish late game example. Two of the first “zones” you’re allowed to moderate when you start Hypnospace Outlaw are Teentopia and Goodtime Valley, which are essentially alternate universe Yahooligans and a little slice of Hypnospace just for Boomers respectively. On Teentopia you’ll see a bunch of kids that are wild for Squisherz, Hypnospace’s alternate universe version of Pokémon, and over in Goodtime Valley you’ll see (much like there was back in real world 1999) a few pages made by religious fundamentalists convinced that everything the kids like these days is the work of Satan. This of course includes Squisherz, and you can find a page by one organization full of crackpot conspiracy theories with flimsy evidence that TOTALLY DEFINITELY backs up their claim. Squisherz contains a wolf, which the Bible warns about many times! This giraffe monster CLEARLY has a pentagram in its design!! And the eye of this snake-like Squisherz is the eye of Horus, an Egyptian occult symbol and NEED I REMIND YOU that Lucifer took the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden!!! It is very clear what this page is goofing on and throughout the course of the game it doesn’t get updated at all, so it’s very easy to laugh at it and forget about it. Very late into the game, you get an optional sidequest. Adrian Merchant, one of the CEOs of Merchantsoft, the company that created Hypnospace, was found out to have logged traffic indicating he was a frequent visitor of a website called Children of HORUS, and a call is put out to investigate what that even is. You can easily find the website, but it asks you for a password if you click the Enter button. Adrian Merchant is consistently portrayed throughout the game as a complete idiot, and the solution to this puzzle has you capitalize on that. Another early game objective ended up with you finding a list of cracked passwords, and one of those passwords happens to be for the instant messenger account of Adrian Merchant. If you can remember that he was even in that text file from forever ago, and then put two and two together that of COURSE that dumbass would use the same password for everything, you just punch in his messenger password and you’re granted access to the Children of HORUS page. It turns out that HORUS is an acronym that stands for Hiding Occult References in Utmost Secrecy, and the page itself is a basic leaderboard with a list of names and two numbered columns reading “Hidden” and “Found”. In that list of names you’ll find A. Merchant, along with the names of various other CEOs and celebrities you might have read about elsewhere in Hypnospace. One of the other names on this list is F. Kazuma, the CEO of Monarch, creators of Squisherz. The funny conspiracy theory website from the beginning of the game that you most likely forgot about was, about this one specific thing, correct. There was an eye of Horus hidden on the snake from Squisherz. Not as any sort of Satanic plot, mind you, but only as part of some weird millionaire dickwaving contest. This dumb tiny revelation is not called out by the game at all and nothing comes of it, it’s just there for you to notice if you’ve been paying enough attention. Hypnospace Outlaw is LITTERED with stuff like this. Weird small interconnected things you wouldn’t expect to be interconnected. Little dumb things you wouldn’t expect to have any sort of payoff but somehow do. And it’s also just as chock full of big things. Having all the pieces fall into place at once to where I was able to access Hypnospace’s equivalent of the dark web was the best sequence in a game this year for me, even beating out the outlandish shit in DMC5. Getting and solving the final case was a rush. Hypnospace Outlaw is full of incredible moments big and small. It’s genuinely engaging and affecting, which is so much more than I was expecting from a game that was pitched to me as “Funny GeoCities Cop”. It almost has no right being so good. But it is. Hell, even the music rules! I didnt even get into that! I don't have enough time or space to get into that now! The music is so goddamn good! I know I started these lists because I had no interest in ranking games, but every year I sort of jokingly-but-not-jokingly say “haha this game sure would be my number one if I did that!” for at least one game. It’s time to fully lean into it. I don’t gotta rank ‘em all, but I can pick a favorite. Hypnospace Outlaw is my favorite game of 2019 with a goddamn bullet.

These games were also cool, I just had less to say about them:

Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo DS, 2007): Man, this series just started out good, huh? I dabbled with the first two games in college when I got a DS flashcart but never really dug in until EO4, and the first game is enjoyable in just about every way the modern ones are. Definitely more barebones and punishing though. Kero Blaster (PlayStation 4, 2017): This is a game by the creator of Cave Story that does not aim to be Cave Story, and that’s fine! A fun little shooter in its own right, though I do think the shooting in Cave Story felt a little better than it does here. Space Invaders Extreme (Nintendo DS, 2008): I played the shit out of this game in college thanks to that flashcart I mentioned before, but I never finished a playthrough in full until this year for some reason. Still way stylish and way fun! I need to get a copy of the second one... CROSSNIQ+ (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Incredibly chill puzzle game that can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. Almost uncanny in how well it emulates the style of late PS1/Dreamcast games. Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Mario Maker 2 is kind of weird for me. It’s a solid improvement in a lot of aspects, but a clear regression in a lot of others. Also the online multiplayer is the second least amount of fun I’ve had with a video game this year (Secret of Mana swooped in and stole the number one slot near the end). Still, I had a lot of fun with it and I’ll probably end up going back to it eventually. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Nintendo Switch, 2018): The original Katamari Damacy is still every bit as fun and charming as it was upon its original release. This port is weirdly based on the Japanese version with the English text inserted, which means no English voice acting and Wanda Wanda only plays in the multiplayer mode. The Joycon sticks also aren’t the greatest for doing charge rolls. But none of these faults detract too much from the game. Bring on We Love Katamari Reroll! Earth Defense Force 5 (PlayStation 4, 2018): Sandlot somehow keeps finding ways to make each new EDF bigger and explodier, and EDF5 is the biggest and explodiest yet. I think the mission design in 4.1 was more solid overall, but 5 feels the best to play and has the most fun tools. Also the dialogue is the most absurd its ever been, and the final boss goes for it way harder than the series ever has. Pokémon Shield (Nintendo Switch, 2019): This game is honestly just okay, but leaving it off would again be neglecting a game I put a ton of time into this year. Pokémon Sword is fun in the way most Pokémon games usually are, and extremely half-baked in basically every other aspect. I’m still having a good time putting together teams and finding shinies and doing The Pokémon Thing regardless.

And that’s 2019 (and this decade) in the bag! I don’t know where anything’s going from here, but I’m going to ride it out as best as I can! I hope you do too! As always, thank you so much for getting to the bottom of all these words. I’m hoping to be in a more stable place mid-2020, and then I want to get back to all the things I haven’t had time to do. I want to get back to streaming, I want to write more dumb articles like The Best Babies, I want to do it all! I hope I will be able to do it all. Until then!

[karlieklosssource]

Supermodel Karlie Kloss turns coding passion into a summer coding camps for girls

It's about 7 a.m. on an early autumn day in New York City and supermodel Karlie Kloss is quickly becoming a morning person.

“I don’t know when or how this happened, I don’t think I’ve slept past the sunrise any day this week,” Kloss told ABC News’ Chief Business, Technology and Economics Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis in an interview for “Nightline.”

On this particular morning, Kloss is coming off of a 16-hour day filming Project Runway and is getting ready for an event with Adidas, one of her many brand ambassadorships.

Despite the long days and early mornings Kloss embraces it all.

“That’s kind of my life but the good thing is I really love what I do,” said Kloss.

The 40-time Vogue cover girl got her start at just 13-years-old when she was discovered at a mall in her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. She was approached by two modeling scouts, Jeff and Mary Clarke, the husband and wife duo behind Mother Model Management, who also famously discovered Ashton Kutcher at The Airliner Bar in Iowa City.

In Kloss’ case, they were recruiting for a charity fashion show.

“I was just at the mall with my friend and I was wearing Birkenstocks and just living my life at 13 years old…And at that time I literally had no interest in that [modeling] or really idea of like what the fashion industry was. It just wasn't in my world.”

Kloss said she realized quickly “it really was something I really enjoyed” and it didn’t take long for her career to take off. The modeling scouts introduced her to agents and by the time she was 15-years-old she was walking in her first major runway show.

“That fall when I started my freshman year of high school I got an opportunity to walk in New York Fashion Week for Calvin Klein and I was 15 years old. Like literally had started high school two days before and it just put me on the map.”

Kloss became a breakout star in the industry, walking in 31 shows her first New York Fashion Week season. Over the course of the next few months Kloss got an apartment in New York City and was traveling around the globe with her first major fashion campaigns for Bvlgari and Dolce & Gabbana.

But while she was living the life of a glamorous and worldly model, back home in St. Louis, pre-social media, she was just an average teenager.

“I was 15 years old, I was tall and lanky, no boys were paying any attention to me. I felt totally out of place in St. Louis, just like every teenager does. And it kind of was like this secret alter ego that I got to live out and build a career. And no one really knew about it back home.”

(MORE: Karlie Kloss goes back to school)

Over the next 11 years Kloss would become one of the most recognizable faces on the planet, gracing the runways of major designers like Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior, Versace and Diane von Furstenberg.

She also served as global brand ambassador for Estee Lauder and starred in several major international campaigns for brands like adidas, Versace, Dior, Carolina Herrera and Swarovski

“I was going back and forth between, like, sitting in my chemistry class, getting on a plane that night right after school going to Paris, walking Dior Couture opening the show…and then going back home and like needing to like still turn in my five paragraph essay,” said Kloss. “But it was really amazing dual world and life that I lived and still live, I guess.”

Today that “dual world” includes another passion -- coding. On the surface it’s one that might seem unexpected, as the couture-clad super beauty doesn’t necessarily fit the stereotype of a hoodie-wearing coder, but Kloss has had a love of math and science from the beginning.

(MORE: Karlie Kloss goes back to school)

As the daughter of an emergency room physician, she looked up to her father, fascinated by his ability to problem solve and help people using science.

“I definitely thought being a doctor would be my kind of career path. I always was really fascinated by science, by math and I loved the idea of being able to help people with a skill set,” she said.

Kloss discovered her own love of coding by taking classes at The Flatiron School in Lower Manhattan. Her instructor and dean of the school, Avi Flombaum, said that she was a natural.

“I met Karlie, I was doing a class for two of my friends and they asked if she could join...She showed up on day one, really took to it and outperformed my two friends,” Flombaum told ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis.

(MORE: How to get your girls involved in coding)

After that first lesson in 2014, Kloss was hooked.

“That whole week, and more and more, she started emailing me if we could spend time on the weekends coding and that sort of snowballed,” Flombaum said.

But eventually, Kloss wanted to do more than just learn herself. She wanted to figure out a way to give other women the skill that she found so valuable. With the help of Flombaum, she started a scholarship giving 21 teenage women across the U.S. the opportunity to take the Flatiron School’s two-week pre-college program coding class, the same one that Kloss took when she fell in love with coding.

“I have this audience of young women across the country around the world, and I really care about the message that I'm sending them both through my words and my actions. And I thought, you know what, I would love to offer them something more meaningful than just a picture backstage at a runway show.”

Just one year after starting her own coding journey, Kode With Klossy was born.

Today the free two-week summer coding camp has grown to 50 camps across 25 cities across the U.S. girls ages 13 to 18 can apply to attend through the company’s website and be placed in classes of 20 where they learn to code real-life apps.

It’s not abnormal for Kloss to pop into one of the camps, and she’s become a mentor for many of the young women who have been with the program since the start. “Nightline” joined her for one of those visits at a camp in New York, where level 3 campers are learning Swift, the coding language used by Apple developers.

“It’s really amazing because I feel like I really have seen them grow so much, beyond just learning code...They’ve been able to grow as humans. I think it’s such an intense moment in life being in your teen years and high school and you’re kind of figuring out so many things and I see these girls kind of come into their own power, come into their own confidence, and they realize all that could be possible in their lives, in their careers, and it’s just so fun and amazing to watch. I get goose bumps, I really do. They’re my little sisters.”

In the beginning, the young coders first learn the basics of the new language and then collaborate to design and build a new app. They were in the final stages of creating applications targeted at real world problems when “Nightline” stopped by. But it’s not just the curriculum that these young coders love, it’s the relationships they are building with other young women in technology.

Many of the coders we spoke to said that the camps provide a supportive place to grow and thrive. Valeria Torres-Olivares, 18, began learning to code in her sophomore year of high school. But she said the past two summers she has spent at Kode With Klossy have “been a rejuvenating experience having amazing girls to work with and talk about code with.”

“You don’t feel comfortable asking your peers questions because most of the time they are male and most of the time, whether they are mean to you or not, they do make you feel like you are less than them,” Torres-Olivares told ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis.

Many of the female coders “Nightline” met say they are outnumbered by their male counterparts at school.

“It’s just like three girls in the front row and then the rest of it is all guys. Basically feels like a guy’s club. So being here feels like a safe space,” 16-year-old camper Ivana said.

Sofia Ongele, 18, who started learning to code at the Kode With Klossy camp in 2016, added that one of her favorite things about the program is the network of women she can connect with to talk about coding. “I could just hit up my girlfriends any time that I wanted to and be like, ‘hey, help me out here.’ So that was really great.”

When creating the camps it was important to Kloss to focus on women. Today, while women make up more than half of college-educated workers, they only make up 25 percent of those in STEM fields, according to the U.S. Department of State.

“There are multiple problems too, I think, why more girls don't get excited about tech or see themselves in that industry. A -- barrier to entry of not having opportunities, not having a class to even take to learn the skills. And B -- what society tells us or the image that we see and I think we need more visibility around women in the industry and they exist.”

With over 16 million followers across her social media platforms, Kloss is helping to increase the visibility around women in technology, showing that the stereotype surrounding STEM aren’t real.

“Everybody expected me to be one thing, to be on the catwalks or in magazines...And so I definitely think a lot of people noticed when I started coming out and talking about my love of science and math and more nerdy passions,” said Kloss. “I think that me standing up and kind of identifying my nerdy passions has ignited that for so many other girls and that impact is something that really drives me to want to keep being true to who I am, and supporting other young women.”

Watch more from Karlie Kloss on "Nightline" tonight at 12:35 a.m. ET and hear more of her interview on the ABC News podcast, “No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis."

[klcthebookworm]

Delayed FanFic Friday: Mission on Mimban 6 of 12

Previous Installments

Introduction, One, Two, Three, Four, Five,

What Happens in the Chapter

We have made it to Chapter Six. This novel only has twelve chapters, so normally I'd say we would find the midpoint (the centerpiece of your entire story which must feature a revelation that gives your protagonist new insight into the plot and allows him to shift from the reaction of the first half of the story and into action in the second half How to Structure Your Story's Outline (How to Outline for NaNoWriMo Pt. 7)) in this chapter. But pacing has been dragging, so I make no promises of finding it here.

Luke and Leia are escorted to the maximum security holding cell by a subofficer and some stormtroopers. Luke takes the time before reaching the cell to complain about the Empire being too cheap to build a proper headquarters. Leia picks up on that, and gets offended that this building was a temple turned into offices and a prison. They're shoved into the cell with angled bars "as big around as Luke forearm" and the Imperials leave, laughing at their trepidation. The piles of fur wake up. Leia is frightened of the huge creature that stands up, but Luke is more surprised and greets the Yuzzem in what he knows of their language. Hin and Kee are delighted to make friends with a human who understands them. They had gotten themselves roped into Imperial enslavement and ended up on Mimban, protested their treatment, and only got documents waved in their faces and jokes made of them. So they got drunk, took the equipment, and started filling in the mine. Grammel didn't have them shot because they each do the work of three men and they were drunk.

Grammel comes down with several stormtroopers, visibly relieved that the Yuzzem have not torn Luke and Leia apart. If everyone is getting along, there's no reason to move them out of the safest cell they have. Grammel lets slip that an Imperial Governor has taken an interest in them, and Leia has a panic attack from her experience on the Death Star. Grammel recognizes that she has undergone Imperial interrogation before, but Luke won't tell them who they really are. Grammel pitches a fit and threatens Leia, and Kee grabs Grammel by the throat. He takes a stun blast to the side which scorches his fur and Hin attacks the bars when he can't reach Grammel. Unfortunately, the bars hold. Grammel insults the Yuzzem while he speaks to Luke. Hin hocks a well-aimed loogie and it hits Grammel on the back of the neck.

Hin comes back to Luke and Leia after Grammel leaves. Leia fainted from the fear of going through interrogation again. She comes to and apologizes for losing control. Luke promises she won't undergo another session. Food comes through a hole in the stone walls rather than the barred door. After eating, Luke finally takes a look around with a mind of how to break the hell out. The cell entry control is a "recessed photo-sensitive switch" down the corridor out of arms-reach of everyone in the cell. Once Luke decides that's the weak point of the security system, Halla confirms it from the cell window.

Once they have caught up on what Grammel now knows and Hin and Kee have offered to get them out of the building if Halla breaks them out of the cell, Halla uses the Force to levitate one of the food trays to cover the switch. She can't make it all the way and implores Luke to help her. He does and Obi-Wan Kenobi's voice gives him pointers. They get the cell door open, Hin and Kee take off with Leia nearly right behind them, while Luke gets directions on where to meet the droids and Halla once they're outside. Leia drags Luke out of the cell, and then they have to stop rampaging Yuzzem. They get weapons, Kee destroys the communications center, Hin presents Luke with his lightsaber, and they finally bolt for the main entrance.

What I Liked

I'm not pleased with Leia getting indignant over the misuse of architecture and not indignant over the abuse of the Mimbanites, but it leads to a great dig at an Imperial.

"I am told this mining is an expensive venture. The Empire is smart enough to save where it is able," he concluded with pride.

"That probably extends to your pay and retirement benefits," the Princess ventured maliciously.

Yes, I must find a way to keep that in. Despite the Rebels having no room to talk about using abandoned temples as headquarters.

I adore Hin and Kee's drunken plan to get back at the Imperials, fill in the mine. It had no chance and they were stopped, but it has symmetry. It also makes me think these two are actually younger than Luke and Leia, teenagers for their species rather than young adults.

Halla is a bad-ass. To get back in touch with her new partners, she stood "on a ledge about ten centimeters wide, over a forty-meter-deep trench" after passing a barrier that "would detect any energy weapons or explosives". We're not told how high up the ziggurat the window is.

The narration does not tell us the voice speaking to Luke is Ben, but really who else could it be?

Luke shut his own eyes and tried to concentrate only on the tray, ignoring the cell, the Princess, everything but that floating flat plane of formed metal. A familiar voice seemed to remind him of something.

"Don't try so hard, Luke," the voice said. "Remember how I taught you. Relax, relax, let the Force work through you. Don't try to force the Force."

That voice is not coming from Halla; she's too busy concentrating on the tray. And I would think you'd need some awareness of the surroundings in order to successfully levitate an object. This won't do them any good if the tray goes against the wall and doesn't cover the photo-sensor cell.

Leia closes the bars again and slips the tray back inside to make any of the stormtroopers following them nervous over what they are capable of.

"Decommissioned troopers" is a euphemism for dead stormtroopers. I don't know why they thought that was better, since the phrase comes up after Luke and Leia catch up to the Yuzzem and find Hin using a droid as a club to beat a soldier to a pulp and both were "coming apart at roughly the same rate."

What I Found Problematic

Subofficer is not given a rank, so I'm assuming he gets a snazzy Imperial uniform and not stormtrooper armor like the chatty sergeant of the last two chapters (who is also referred to as a noncom which means a noncommissioned officer). I don't see why we had to change characters here or why his rank isn't given. Thirteen pages later we learn the subofficer's name is Puddra. Maybe he is in charge of the prison? That makes sense, but why didn't we get his name when he was introduced?

I admit it's probably due to the current political climate and journalists being too feckless to actually name what things are, but I find myself with no patience for weasley words chosen by Foster or put in the mouths of the characters. "They signed themselves into--well, I guess you couldn't call it slavery, but indentured servitude is too polite a term." NAME WHAT IT IS! Both of these terms have definitions and differences. Commit to what happened to these characters. That the Imperials lied to them is a given, both of these option (or option number three) are equally horrific and worth revolting over when the Imperials are the ones in power, so make a damn decision and say what it is! And if someone in Editorial is kicking a fuss about slavery in this book, this isn't the way to have it but not have it too. You are not fooling anyone, Foster.

The trained diplomat is frightened by tall, furry aliens. I could accept that the trained diplomat is nervous and really wants the protocol droid that knows over six million forms of communication present now to help her with a species she doesn't know. I'm having a harder time with the fear from Princess Leia "Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?" Organa, Senator of Alderaan.

We have a brief moment of regret for the choices they have made on this planet.

"If we hadn't lost control of ourselves back in front of the tavern, we wouldn't have attracted the attention of those miners. We wouldn't be here now. It's my fault."

He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Leia... Princess. This mess was nobody's fault. Besides, it's fun losing control once in a while."

No, no, no, no, no. This mess is equally BOTH your faults for being idiots on an IMPERIAL CONTROLLED WORLD. Leia was immature by kicking Luke into the mud, Luke was equally immature pulling her into the mud, and you both have bounties on your heads. Yes, you should take some time to reflect just how badly you screwed up then and how badly you are screwing up NOW. What the hell are you doing dropping titles and Rebellion affiliations where the cell security can pick it up?!

"You grinning travesty of a man." That is a weak-ass insult, Grammel. I expected better of an Imperial who just threatened to dismember the woman that Governor Essada was interested in. The Yuzzem are not men.

How does Hin recognize the lightsaber as Luke's? Does it carry Luke's scent? Luke hasn't called himself a Jedi as far as we know.

What Changes in My Fic

Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Alien Species by Ann Margaret Lewis had a better reason for Luke knowing Yuzz: a Yuzzem lived in Anchorhead and Luke made friends with him. This is the backstory reason I'm going with rather than "I studied a lot of worlds back on Tatooine" reason Foster came up with.

Hin and Kee's backstory won't change much except I'm going with option three: alien trafficking. These two Yuzzem kids were approached and promised a well paying job, a chance to send credits back home which probably isn't doing so great under Imperial rule. Then they get to Mimban and they are paid, but everything is being docked from their paychecks. The flight to Mimban, their return flight home whenever they fulfill their contract, food, lodging, any equipment they break because it's designed for humans not Yuzzem until there is nothing left to save. They are free to leave once their contract is fulfilled or they pay to get out of it. Hah, hah, you can't pay. There you go, exploitation without slavery.

I have to decide on Puddra's rank, but I'm making him the ranking officer over the prisoners like a warden.

Overall, the prison break is decent, if a bit talky in spots. My problem is there would be less for Halla to do because Luke and Mara both are in training and levitating the tray should occur to them without outside prompting. Also, I'm not sure this qualifies as the midpoint but I'm putting it there unless a later scene makes a more compelling case.

Plot events time. Helping Writers Become Authors further explains this breakdown.

Hook 1% mark = Crashing onto Mimban

Set-up 1% - 12%

Inciting Event 12% mark = Finding the Imperial mining outpost

Build-up 12% - 25%

1st Plot Point 25% mark = Luke and Leia agree to find the Kaiburr crystal with Halla

Reaction to 1st Plot Point 25% - 37%

1st Pinch Point 37% mark = Meeting with Grammel

Realization 37% - 50%

Midpoint or 2nd Plot Point 50% mark = Prison break

Action 50% - 62%

2nd Pinch Point 62% mark

Renewed Push 62% - 75%

[landgraabbed]

basil: 1,19,22 mumina: 3,5,9,22 jess: 1,6,7,13 lucian: 5,12,27,28,30 khal: 8,15,19,28

a big apology for taking so long!! and thank u for sending all these beautiful kids!! :’) under the cut babe!!

1. what’s your oc’s biggest insecurity and how would they react if someone pointed it out to them?

that he is too soft–too naïve, too unprepared. basically basil’s fancied becoming a journalist for a long time, and realizing that if he wants to become a good one he must be harder… is difficult. he’s starting to feel more and more like he isn’t good for that job, and that maybe it’s not a good fit for him. and it’s not good. at this point he just wants to publish one story that’s good.

if someone else were to point it out to him, he’d dismiss them and avoid the topic until he has an idea of what else he wants to do.

19. what boosts your oc’s confidence the most?

feeling like he’s done something relevant, or when something he does goes well. also, when people appreciate him and compliment him!! he blushes a lot but it inspires him to do (and be) better!!

22. how does your oc usually show affection? are they openly romantic or more restricted with their affectionate emotions?

it depends on how close he is to the person, and especially, how comfortable they make him feel. considering a golden scenario…. he’s very comfortable with them and they’ve been together for a while now (so the novelty doesn’t make him a bumbling mess), chances are basil will be very affectionate–not really with words, but with gestures that make their life easier. he will do a lot of things around the house, bookmark things he knows they’d love… that kind of thing. he is open but in the way he can be.

3. does your oc behave differently around different people, if so with whom and how?

very. it’s part of why she’s such a dang good politician. she actively strives to maintain these border lines. it’s a professional/casual/romantic division. at least, at the moment.

in professional settings, mumina is very much… a machine. she doesn’t bring any of her personal life to her work and she is very much a yes woman even if she disagrees. this is where her determination shines the most. as time goes by and the story develops this façade becomes more and more restricted to her contact with the public.

casual mumina is mumina with her friends. she can be this way at work if it’s with malcolm and especially lucian. and it will become more and more like this. she’s a hypercompetitive lady who likes to make fun of her “kids”.

romantic mina is mina when she’s with mala. mostly unguarded, very soft, very tender. she loses her “alpha-ness”.

5. how would your oc generally react to someone being verbally abusive towards them for no apparent reason?

she would most likely just tell them to talk to the hand and dismiss them. 

they would have to approach her and explain themselves and apologize if they want to make amends because she sure as hell doesn’t care. she may forgive, but she doesn’t forget.

9. does your oc feel a pressure to achieve or are they content and calm with doing what they can at the moment?

mumina comes across as an overachiever with her hypercompetitiveness, but she doesn’t really feel a pressure to achieve. 

it’s like… she believes that if you do something, you must do it well, so she strives to do her best. but she is content with where she is. her competitiveness usually doesn’t lead her to reach above her.

22. how does your oc usually show affection? are they openly romantic or more restricted with their affectionate emotions?

very open in private. she will shower mala with compliments and want to kiss her all over. winku. with friends she is more restricted, but u better bet she will show off mala to anyone as if she were a trophy wife. she kinda is. her hobby is competing against mal in “my wife is better than yours”.

they’re tied.

1. what’s your oc’s biggest insecurity and how would they react if someone pointed it out to them?

not being good enough/being abandoned because of it.

this is her core belief, after all. she was abandoned by her human parent (she doesn’t know anything about them) because she, for some reason, isn’t good enough for them. so she tries to be better and do better and become, for all intents and purposes, perfect. she feels like that is her ticket of entry into relationships.

she is a very functional perfectionist so it’s not often people notice it. when someone does point it out she denies it and tries to push them away because she feels that now that they saw through her they will want nothing with her. she hurts them and in so doing she hurts herself the most. at this point she really needs to be invested in that relationship otherwise she will just let them go because they have nothing to do with it.

6. does your oc have a realistic image of their own intelligence?

she got there with time, but yes, she more or less has one. she’s very good at identifying the things she isn’t good at, and while she is a perfectionist at heart, she has learned well to cut herself some slack in some areas she doesn’t consider as central to her selfhood.

she knows she’s a very do-it person, not so much book smart, though she does know a lot of useless trivia. she’s definitely a right brain kind of person.

7. does your oc have any irrational phobias?

abandonment!! imperfection/not being good enough, explored above.

13. what kind of situations does your oc avoid the most?

answered here!

5. how would your oc generally react to someone being verbally abusive towards them for no apparent reason?

by being very dramatic and being even nastier to them!! you think luce jokes around?? nah. and you bet he would be plotting murder right after and finding every bit of dirt on them he can.

12. what is one of the most primary things your oc feels that is missing from their life?

intimacy. lucian’s always ended up putting himself at arm’s length from people. he is very… precise in what he wants. he wants to be good at his job, he has a very specific idea of the image of himself that he wants to show others, he has a very specific idea of what kind of man he wants to be with. 

he’s very good at getting what he wants. he’s also very quick to get bored, particularly in relationships. he always looks for people who seem to have it all/seem to be put together and… he ends up getting bored. he basically needs to be with a M E S S like himself.

27. does your oc practice any kind of escapism? if yes, what kind?

he does, especially fantasizing type, which he turns into some sort of illusion. when lucian is feeling down he does the things he wants to appear to do–he goes to the movies, finds a date, treats himself. they don’t feel v genuine and he knows it so it’s not very effective in that regard. he busies himself with knowing the rotten bits of everyone else so he doesn’t have to look at himself, too.

but mostly he makes it so he appears to be the kind of person he wants people to think he is. take his ring, for example. most people believe he is married or engaged because of it, and he has no qualms with letting them assume that.

28. how would your oc react if a bully stole their lunch money in high school?

get revenge. he would break the sound barrier to get to the principal’s office with some scandalous accusation that may or may not be entirely true. he’s not joking around.

30. what makes your oc defensive quickest?

when people criticize his work/don’t let him do it as he wants to.

8. how is/was your oc’s relationship with their parents?

it’s… really good tbh, though it’s also very asymetric, since habiba too most educational responsibilities bc of language barrier.

khalil’s relationship with habiba is very close. he admires her greatly and everything she did for him and his apu, for being the only one in their house who worked until khalil started, and everything else. until khalil got good enough to create good plugins and apps and he started working part-time as a teen, she was the lady of the house. nowadays it’s more of a partnership. khalil tries to help his parents financially as best as he can and habiba rly trusts his judgment.

his relationship with smith is different. there’s a lot of love there but also some kind of barrier–smith is very good at communicating through gestures and sign language, but there are things that are very difficult, and their writing isn’t very elaborate. khalil still loves them a lot and to smith khalil is their biggest treasure. their relationship is very soft and comforting!!

15. does your oc consider themselves a good person?

he does!! khalil is a good flower who knows himself very well, bless him!!

19. what boosts your oc’s confidence the most?

praise!! seeing that he is helping, too, but mostly praise and validation from the people whose opinion he values. 

28. how would your oc react if a bully stole their lunch money in high school?

he would try to negotiate to get it back. if it works out, all the better, if not, he won’t snitch them out either. he’d ask for a friend’s help and then pay them back another day.

[failure-friendly]

Barriers to entry and the secret key to getting started

As a child the backyard was my wonderland, I’d lose myself playing in the garden for hours at a time. I was recently thinking back to childhood adventures when I realised - I now have my own backyard. A wonderland in waiting. But how? I don’t come from a family of green thumbs so I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t even know what to google. 

I became overwhelmed by the thought of how many gardening books, blogs, TV shows, magazines and experts that must exist out there. I mean I could buy some seeds and have a go but it will definitely fail, waste of time. Maybe a gardening course or coach can guide me, that will be the fastest painless way. That’s probably going to be expensive though. I’ll pop the garden dream up on the ‘one day when I’m rich’ shelf. The end. 

That thought process happened in the blink of an eye.

Thank goodness the idea nagged at me and I had to ask myself “Why do I need a guide? Why is the thought of trial and error so exhausting?”

My inner critic promptly replied, “Well, being a clumsy student isn’t a cute look on a thirty year old. You should have taken an interest in gardening as a child. It’s too late for you now. Move on.”

“Hang on a second” I thought, “You’re telling me I can self-help my way to overcoming creative anxiety but I can’t DIY learning to garden? Have you forgotten how fun learning a new skill is? You know what a hobby is yes?”

In that moment of self awareness I caught fear behind the wheel. And just like that I had a choice. I decided to take back the driver’s seat and write myself a mental permission slip. 

With the freedom of self permission I left perfectionism at the door and followed fun instead. If the gardening tools looked fun I bought them, if the gardening podcast sounded fun I listened, if the book jumped out I read it. In the garden with zero expectation I grabbed the shears and started chopping. “I’ll probably go too far” I said without consequence or worry. I didn’t care if I pruned too much or too little. It was just fun and behind the scenes I was learning.

There’s a place for discipline and stretching towards excellence - but that place is not at the beginning. My favourite things to say in my creative work are “This may be a silly question but..” or “I’ll lean on your expertise on this, would you suggest...?” or the ultimate invitation “let’s have a crack!” Owning your clumsiness gives you the freedom to play. And play unlocks the door confidence and creativity.

To read more about the power of play check out previous posts ‘you gotta play your way’ and ‘why so serious?”

Print your own damn permission slip here. 

- BuZzZy XOXO

[aicelab]

Product selection as a decisive success factor in drop shipping projects

For many online retailers, DropShipping is clearly the business concept of the future. Without start-up capital and with greatly reduced running costs, you can conduct your own business from the comfort of your own home without having to spend as much time as entrepreneurs in other areas. The success of DropShipping depends very much on the selected sales products. In this article you will learn how this influence has a concrete effect and what you can do to improve your chances.

DropShipping is the magic bullet in modern e-commerce

Any prospective or freshly baked online retailer who has never heard of DropShipping should pause for a moment and catch up as quickly as possible. There are quite a few people who are completely convinced that this trading concept is by far the best solution for online trading.

Anyone who plays with the idea of becoming self-employed by selling products via the Internet has to struggle with pleasingly few barriers to entry. In most cases, however, a major obstacle stands in its way all the more severely. The step into this form of self-employment unfortunately requires considerable start-up capital, which is mainly used to finance the first inventory. Imagine you are trading in electronic products and your assortment is just 500 items. Even if you only want to have one copy of each article in stock at the beginning and if these products do not cost you more than 100 Euros on average when you buy them, you will first have to find 50,000 Euros before you can even start your own business.

The situation at the DropShipping dealer is quite different. He simply saves this investment and leaves the products from his range with the respective supplier until something is actually ordered. He informs his supplier of the order and the latter sends the goods directly to the end customer concerned. Notice anything? The DropShipping retailer can not only save himself the starting capital, but also needs neither warehouse nor warehouse personnel or packaging material. His business model is therefore free of many risks and does not present him with an unsolvable task when it comes to working hours.

The consumer does not even notice that the product does not come from the dealer himself, but from his supplier. And even if he found out that he had bought from a drop shipping company, it wouldn’t put him at a disadvantage. Anyone who decides in favour of classic online trading instead of seriously considering drop shipping at least once in view of such decisive advantages may make a serious mistake and should reconsider his founding plan critically.

The assortment determines success at the end of the day

Basically, in online trading it is the assortment that is most important when you ask yourself whether your own company will be successful or not. In this respect, DropShipping is no different from any other e-commerce company. You should therefore put a lot of effort into building up your concrete offers and also think about whether there are products that are particularly suitable for drop shipping trading models.

In order to give you a few suggestions in this direction, we have developed four strategies for you that point out the advantages and opportunities of certain products in drop shipping. Work through our suggestions one after the other and find out for yourself if there is anything useful for you. For each strategy, you will receive a useful practical tip that will help you to put what you have learned into practice immediately. Whether you decide for DropShipping or not: We wish you a lot of fun and success in realizing your ideas and plans regarding self-employment.

Strategy 1: Bulky or heavy products

Let us first concentrate on products that are associated with special advantages when sold by drop shipping. This is especially the case with particularly large and bulky goods and there is a very convincing reason for this. Large and bulky products are particularly costly in terms of shipping. Within the framework of classical trade, these must even be transported twice. On the one hand, the supplier must send the goods to the retailer and on the other hand, the retailer must send the product on to the end customer. So there are double transport costs.

This is quite different with drop shipping: Here the goods are only sent once from the supplier directly to the consumer. The costs therefore only have to be borne once. This price advantage can be used, for example, to offer the product at a significantly lower overall price and thus gain an effective market advantage. The savings can also be used to increase your own profit. Large and bulky products therefore offer the DropShipping retailer special advantages that should definitely lead to this category of goods being given preference in the shop.

Our tip: In the case of large and bulky products, returns by the customer are particularly costly. To this end, clear solutions and agreements should be developed with suppliers from the outset, defining how best to proceed in the event of a return. Therefore, negotiate clear agreements with your manufacturers or wholesalers in this case.

Strategy 2: Products with a low return rate

There’s an effect that causes almost every online retailer to be in a bad mood. We are talking about the dreaded return rate. The consumer has the right to return to the trader a product which he does not like or which he does not wish to keep for other reasons. Ultimately, it is also very good that these regulations apply. Otherwise, very few people are likely to be willing to take the risk of ordering online. From the dealer’s point of view, however, the return is a real catastrophe. Not only does it disrupt his internal processes, it is also usually associated with a significant loss.

For DropShipping dealers the Returns particularly problematich, as it needs agreements with its suppliers to process them and as additional costs are incurred for processing the returns. For this reason, shop operators should do everything in their power to keep the return rate as low as possible. It is very helpful to think about which products have a rather low probability of being returned and to preferably include them in your own assortment.

Our tip: In addition, you should not only use products with a low return risk in advance, but also react immediately if you discover that certain articles in your range are associated with a noticeably high number of returns. You should immediately ban such products from your product range and look for alternatives that are less susceptible to returns.

Strategy 3: B2B products

When you think of online trading, the first thing you think of are the offers for the classic end customer. Since you belong to this group of people yourself and therefore know and understand their needs particularly well, it is quite understandable that many shop operators limit themselves to this area and fail to take a look outside the box. There are additional sales potentials which should not be underestimated and which are also a fantastic option for drop shipping dealers.

We are talking about so-called B2B products. The abbreviation B2B stands for “business to business” and describes transactions between two business people. Private customers are not the only group of customers who cover their needs on the Internet. In addition, there are countless business customers who buy on the World Wide Web for their companies and invest extremely high amounts overall. If you position yourself skilfully as a trader, you considerably increase your market potential. Therefore, you should in any case think about which of your products and offers you would like to offer interesting for the B2B sector and position yourself accordingly.

Our tip: Before you enter this sales area, you should bear in mind that the needs of business customers can differ significantly from those of private consumers. In the B2B sector, reliability is of paramount importance, as entire production chains often depend on the procurement of the required products. If you are able to align your business model with these requirements, B2B trading offers you excellent opportunities to significantly increase your sales and profits.

Strategy 4: Niche products

It’s not much of an art to deal in mass-produced goods. A quick glance at the Internet is all it takes to determine which major trends are currently of particular interest to consumers. As a newcomer to online trading, however, it’s anything but a good idea to jump into product areas that are already being routinely served by countless of your competitors. The competitive pressure is extremely high here and a bitter price war is raging between the various suppliers. You wouldn’t be doing yourself any favors if you got in here too.

Your chances are much better if you opt instead for a interesting niche market decide. Think about which products you could offer your customers, which are not available at every corner at the moment. Market niches are characterised by the fact that a stable customer interest is confronted with an offer that is too small. And it is not particularly complicated to find and cleverly use such market areas by Internet research.

Our tip: In the successful marketing of niche products, communication is already half the battle. You must tell potential customers what you have to offer, otherwise you won’t get a chance to generate sales and profits. So create a suitable communication concept and ensure that suitable target groups know which unusual articles you are dealing with. In this context, activities within the social networks have proved their worth, making it easy to reach thousands of interested consumers in the shortest possible time.

Of course, the products must above all be selected in such a way that they reach customers as well as possible. But other criteria also play a role. Our guide to the topic DropShipping and returns will tell you clearly what you should pay attention to when choosing a product.

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