#lately i been really thinking about making another blog for a niche interest of mine

[scarysanctuary]

im aware and genuinely neverrrr expect to be followed back because of two reasons: * i'm an annoying yapper * and my blog is a mess of too-specific and yet random things (im super jelly of anyone that has certain blogs for certain topics and never deviates) so if you still follow me despite having little to no interest in some of the stuff i reblog, tankies ♡

[crampdown]

got tagged by @thespiritofvexation @see-sawed and @lovely-menza (thaaanks :D) to answer some lovely questions~

1. Why did you choose your url?

I love the song “Clampdown” by The Clash almost as much as I love horrendous puns. And that’s how I got to a name that’s basically a period joke :^>

2. Any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

Nah. But I am thinking of eventually creating a side blog since I’ve been drawing a lot of original stuff lately and not the fanart doodles that got me most of my followers in the first place. But I’m currently too lazy to make a new blog

3. How long have you been on tumblr?

Let’s say I’ve been aware of this infamous hellsite since 2016 mostly for some artists I liked back then. But I didn’t make an own account until late 2018 before finally posting stuff in 2019.

4. Do you have a queue tag?

No. I’ll spam ten to twenty rbs in a row and then vanish for the next three days again

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Because I gained interest in everything classic rock back in summer 2018. I’ve always enjoyed this kind of music but didn’t bother to learn anything about the  musician in question least of all their NAME up until this point. But the “Yellow Submarine” film won me over and before I knew better, I started doodling the Beatles :^) however it would take me more than half a year before I finally gathered the courage to upload my drawings somewhere. At this point I’ve already gotten into Pink Floyd (cause I used some of their music as inspiration for a short comic but that’s another story). FUN FACT: Me being a music dummy not knowing anything about certain subgenres looked up “How do I tag Pink Floyd? Like, what are they?? Prog? Dunno what that is but okay! Gonna write that in the tags :D” And that’s how I accidentally catapulted myself into the prog niche of the Classic Rock Fandom. Hi.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

It’s the ugly-ass-sort-of-mascot-rabbit that originated from a three year old doodle of mine when I wanted to draw a furry parody, anthropomorphic rabbit but as disgusting as possible, sloppy schlong and all that jazz :^). But since you can’t see him in my header thanks to the ink bottle, he’s quite the looker. Also I love inking the most when it comes to arting around.

7. Why did you choose your header?

Made it myself and still am quite proud of it ^^

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

To this day still that one inktober drawing featuring the Maxwell’s Silver Hammer Recording session :D

9. How many mutuals do you have?

tbh the exact definition of “mutual” is beyond me so I’m not sure. Let’s just say there are definitely some people I love appearing on my dash

10. How many followers do you have?

495 as we speak ^^

11. How many people do you follow?

52 blogs respectively because I always need some time and consideration before following anyone

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

I’m sure there are some cartoons I made counting as shitposts, at least that’s the category I’d put in any sort of meme redraw

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

depends.

14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

Sometimes “hOt tAkEs” will randomly appear on my dash and some of them really make my blood boil but not to the point I’d actually bother to interact with them. I just hate online drama way too much. Everytime I see internet discourse completely escalating about the most abstract of concepts I just wish these people would actually spend some time outside.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

Oh speaking of random things on my dash that make my blood boil....! I wish :) everyone participating in :) blatant emotional manipulation :) a very pleasant “hope you’ll wet your sleeves while washing hands” :)

16. Do you like tag games?

yes ^^

17. Do you like ask games?

yeeeeess 

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

I thought the general opinion on tumblr fame is that it’s basically worthless? 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

I don’t think so? However I love the things you people create <3

20. Tags

gonna tag: @catfacedcryptid @nolavulpina @taterpie @raptorcat1960 @mothmanghost @melloclastic and everyone who feels like it :)

[canonicallysoulmates]

My thoughts/views/opinions about Clif’s insta post....

Important Disclaimer: The following is just my opinion regarding Clif’s instagram post. I don’t speak in representation of anybody but myself. I don’t speak for my fellow j2 fans, and I don’t speak for my fellow tinhats. This is just my POV regarding this situation. 

Warning in advance, I am going to do my best to keep this post cohesive and coherent but my brain is jumping from point to point so if I come off as scatter brained in some parts I apologize. 

Before I get into this post, some of you might be wondering why I am dressing this in the first place when Clif’s post didn’t make mention of j2′s sexuality or of tinhats, it is because I am openly a tinhat and I am vocal one at that, and this is not my first rodeo I know even though he didn’t mention tinhats directly and he brought up things that are discussed by both tinhats and non tinhats alike I know, and I’ve already seen it, that we tinhats are gonna get the brunt of it from the het stans.  

For those of you that don’t know what this post is about, earlier today (12.2.19) j2′s bodyguard Clif made an instagram post regarding j2 and their families and some theories/speculation that there have been regarding j2 and their families, I’m not going to link to the post, or share the post, or even quote the post - even though I will address contents of it - if you really want to know what the post said you can look it up yourself. 

Before I talk about Clif’s post let me address the elephant in the room: Jensen’s comment. Or I should say “Jensen” because I don’t believe it was actually him who left a comment on the post. “Jensen” said that those who theorize about him and Jared’s lives are bullies. Well, he didn’t say exactly that what he actually said was that those who create the “false narratives” that Clif mentioned in his post are bullies. 

I call bullshit. On both the statement and on Jensen being who commented. 

Speculating/theorizing and pointing out what you see regarding a public figures life in your own accounts where you don’t tag anybody does not make you a bully or a hater. That is an idiotic thing to say, if you go by that then speculating that j2 are totally 100% happy in their hetero marriages makes you a bully and a hater too, or is there an exception to hetero positive things because it sells the narrative that they want 🤔

I personally don’t believe Jensen is the one who posted that comment because to me it doesn’t sound like him, I think it was somebody else on his account.

And I find it very...interesting and fitting that “he” commented on this post when on insta his and D’s bearding has been turned to 1,000x, they have reached Shawn Mendes Camilla Cabello levels of extra, even if I thought he was straight I would still think there were problems in that marriage because of how over the top they are lately; it reminds me a bit of a celeb couple from here in PR, for months they been saying they’re fine, that they’re in love, they’ve been going on trips together for all the world looking like a happy couple and then...about 2weeks ago they announced they were getting divorced. 

Back on track, this whole thing is a mess and it’s stupid af, I don’t know what in the hell Clif was thinking when he made that post, I don’t know what he was trying to achieve; I don’t know why he found the need or thought it was a good idea to bring forth things that were being discussed in fandom on the DL and to insert himself into a narrative in which he plays no part, like not to be rude, he can say he’s family all he wants but he’s just a bodyguard and I feel like I should say an occasional one like don’t oversell your importance dude. And even if he was family, the things he brings up in his post are discussions concerning only Jensen, Jared, Genevieve and Danneel. 

And I find it frustrating af funny that he’s so up in arms about what fans speculate in their accounts and he says he considers the boys family but he tends to be silent when j2 are being dragged through the mud and receiving actual death threats. I guess protecting the happy family image is more important.

Jared and Jensen are not the only celebrities to have their lives theorized about, they’re not the only ones who have fans that point out jewelry items like wedding bands or potential house moves, this is something every celebrity has gone through, it even happens to youtubers and instagram influencers. So chill tf down.

My best guess as to why this whole mess happened, because this is a mess of a situation, is that there’s something going on behind the scenes and either they don’t want us to focus on it- in which case good job idiots now fans are speculating like crazy- or they do want us to focus on it and they figured adding fuel to the long burning fire was the best way to make us follow the smoke. 

When I say long burning fire I mean long burning fire, nothing that Clif brought up in his post is new, they’re all things that have been discussed in fandom by tinhats and non tinhats alike for years. 

J2′s living situation, the wedding bands, criticism of the wives, these are all things that have been discussed in this fandom for years and they’re relatively small topics, I imagine that maybe back in the day when j2 first got married these were discussed more often but now a days not a lot of fans, at least that I have seen, talk much about j2′s houses/apartments, or about the wedding bands and when these topics are brought up it’s usually for a day or two tops and I’m being generous like it’s not a massive topic of discussion. 

He brings up the lacking wedding ring and the selling of homes, the ring thing was barely discussed most of us were focused on bigger things, and let me tell you that home thing has been talked about so on the DL in this fandom that I have seen people that are active, way more active and in the know than I am in this fandom be confused af as to what he meant - it’s that apparently Jensen and D are gonna sell the house or something - I’ve barely seen people talk about the house thing and the talk I’ve seen has been facts it’s all about the property and if it appears listed and the like and yet he brings it up along with divorce/separation which has even me going 👀 because in the convos I’ve seen about this topic nobody has ever speculated about this meaning a divorce, I’m sure there’s people that have and I just haven’t seen it but still it’s like why bring this barely being talked about thing and do so while mentioning a separation/divorce like 🤦‍♀️ Now everybody knows about it and is going to be talking about because he brought it to attention. what an idiot. 

Small thing, I take issue with him saying that for some people their passion is to build dream homes and sell and that we have no clue what hard work that is because I’m sure there are people in this fandom who work in real state or who flip houses for a living and they do those things while also speculating/theorizing about j2. 

He talks about how one of the j’s gets criticized for not being home a lot, I will say I have seen these criticism go to both and as I have said in the past I don’t agree with this POV, but it’s a very small niche of fandom that makes comments like that like borderline you have to look for it;  and on the wives being criticized/judged (<- his word not mine) for managing their careers and home life at the same time: yeah no, Daneel and Genevieve are not criticized for managing their careers and home life they’re criticized because they like to act as if they do these things without any help. They have nannies, G has people that help her with her blog, D didn’t start the brewery up by herself and she doesn’t work it by herself and one of her most recent acting gig was on spn a role everyone knows she only got cause she’s married to Jensen. They like to pretend they’re wonder woman and super relatable when in reality they’re privileged, and hey there’s nothing wrong with being privileged enough to be able to afford childcare but there is something wrong with pretending you don’t have that advantage and taking credit for work you don’t do ie. acting like you’re maintaining a home and taking care of the kids all by yourself, and then turning around and acting like your life is a struggle. 

Unless there’s something going on behind the scenes I can’t think of a reason as to why he would bring this stuff up, if anything doing so is stupid because now fans that might not have known about any of these things will know about it and while there’s plenty of sheep who will clap their hands and say ‘those people are so horrible :(’ there are those who are going to get curious and look these things up and where do you think their search is going to land them?  They’re gonna land at the anti blogs, and the hat blogs because we’re the ones that tend to discuss these things. 

Honestly, if  they actually wanted fans to stop speculating they have failed in an impressive way, they achieved the opposite. 

I personally think there is something going on behind the scenes, I don’t know if it’s good or bad but I think something’s going on maybe it’s a divorce or a big project or even something related to spn like a movie but I feel like something is coming our way....

One last thing before I wrap this up, I said this in another post, and I said it on my twitter acc as well but I also wanted to put it here: Clif’s post changes nothing regarding my love and opinion of j2, my status as a tinhat, or the content of my blog. I still love j2 as much as I did before this mess, I’m still a tinhat, and I will continue making tinhat posts both here and on my twitter account. 

This is all I have to say about this situation, I think, these are definitely the main points I hope everything I said came across clearly as I said in the beginning of this post my brain is jumping from spot to spot so it probably came across as a little scatter brained and ramble-y. 

[hcpefulmarshmallow]

I wanted to take some time out of our irregularly scheduled content to talk about something near and dear to my heart: Komaeda’s voice. Specifically, two of his character songs which I have been more eager to dissect than you know. 

A couple of points before we begin:

These songs were not written by the same people who designed, scripted or even localised Komaeda, but rather his Japanese VA, Megumi Ogata. It has, however, been sanctioned as canon material, even released under the Danganronpa brand. Therefore, I will treat it with the same consideration that I do explicitly canon material.

The songs are, of course, in Japanese. I do not speak this language, so I’ll be going off the translations available on the DR wiki. If you do speak Japanese and you realise I’ve missed or misinterpreted something due to the language barrier, please let me know. Otherwise, as an English speaker, I’ll do my best with what I have. 

My goal here is to reconcile his musical characterisation with his canon characterisation, as well as extrapolate whatever new things we can learn from these songs about our beloved boy. And if you’re reading this crazy long post and thinking, “wow, she’s reading way too into this,” ... yeah. That’s sort of the fun of it. My goal isn’t to challenge anybody, or shame anyone’s headcanons. This is just a weird niche hobby of mine.

Apologies for the lack of a cut. This much text, I felt, might be a little hard on some peoples’ eyes on my theme. It is tagged though.

Okay, onto the good stuff.

 Zettai Kibou Birthday is, according to Megumi, a song about how Nagito feels on the “outside”. It contains a literal narrative and a metanarrative which is a word I like to use to sound smart, but in this case, just refers to an overarching interpretation that isn’t necessarily verbatim, but rather is represented, or is provided a structure, or is given meaning by the actual text. 

 In this case, the literal narrative is this: Nagito meets somebody on campus he was “born to meet”, and they have some sort of steamy rendezvous, and in amongst all the smooshing, there are several references to absolute hope. However, the song isn’t supposed to be a literal recount of events, but rather an expression of Nagito’s feelings; about hope, love, intimacy and connection. This is the metanarrative. The plot, if you will, is simply a presentation of that message. 

 While the song functions on a conceptual level and not a physical one, it interests me that sex is the medium through which he allegorises hope, intimacy and interpersonal connection. I think it’s also interesting that hope and intimacy are grouped together, as if to find one is to find the other. To quote Nagito himself, “Now that I’m on the verge of death, I’ve finally realised what I wanted all along: somebody’s love.”

 Again, the song isn’t literal. It captures a feeling, likening that exhilaration and comfort of making a deep and impossible connection to the feeling of finding Ultimate Hope. And for someone who has been so lonely for so long, it makes sense he would find that hope in another person. Someone who isn’t afraid to be close to him in every possible sense of the word. 

 Now let me get it out there - I don’t expect a song like this to have explicit depictions of sex or anything. There is a fine line to walk when using the topic in media lest you be branded with a hard “lewd” rating, but there’s still no shortage of ways to use it without being explicit. Take, for instance, Carla Gugino & Oscar Isaac’s cover of Love Is The Drug. (Why the cover and not the original? Because I actually liked Sucker Punch, fight me.)

Late that night I park my car / Stake my place in the singles' bar / Face to face, toe to toe / Heart to heart as we hit the floor Lumber up, limbo down / The locked embrace, the stumble round / I say go, (and I say yes) / Dim the lights, you can guess the rest

 The words describe literally what is going on, while still invoking the right mood and the emotions the characters in the song were feeling. It’s very well-balanced lyrically, especially with what Oscar and Carla’s performance brings to it. Contrast, if you will, with:

So lock up, mix up, cut up… key up, sex up, wrap up /  I'll let you mess me up and indulge  That's it, break up, use up, end up… hook up—because we're connected / The omen of hope after the worst disaster

 If you look close, you can definitely see what’s happening in the actual narrative of the song. However, the details are more or less obfuscated under this layer of words that don’t really mean anything on their own. It’s more like a flurry of different sensations rather than one, tangible experience. These feelings he’s having during these experience are, in the next breath, directly correlated with connection, and then hope. 

 Nagito is a guy who works on the conceptual and the philosophical more than the literal. Even in canon, he’s heavily into symbolism. He likes to carry around Go stones because of what the colours represent to him. So this use of intimacy and word play to describe a significant bond between two people is remarkably fitting. What’s literally happening isn’t half as important as what is going on beneath the surface, and the way it makes him feel. 

 Like I said, it’s interesting that, of all the ways he could express hope and connection, this is the one he went with. I do believe that this also expresses an underlying attitude towards intimacy; that it’s something he only wishes to share with someone truly special. In many fan circles he is portrayed as a highly sexualised character, even though in the canon media, he is quite chaste, never taking any sexual interest in a situation that isn’t sexual; for instance, any of the many times Mikan falls over herself and winds up in a suggestive pose. (And nor should he, let me stress.) 

 And I can already foresee the counterargument that Nagito is gay, so of course he won’t enjoy seeing a girl’s underwear; and to that, I have two points. One is that, personally, I disagree. This doesn’t have to matter, but I headcanon him as bi or pan, possibly even demi. Either way, I don’t believe gender plays a major role in who he is attracted to. There’s no canon evidence to say who is “right” here (as right as anyone can be regarding fiction), but I don’t judge. If that’s your interpretation, you do you. The second is that, even towards the characters he is shown to be attracted to (namely, Hajime) his expressions of interest tend to be pure, for lack of a better word. Yes, there’s the joke about stripping naked on the beach, but I’m pretty sure that’s just a joke. He does tend to play a lot, after all.

 And let me be clear -- there is nothing wrong with being a sexual person, or expressing one’s desire’s healthily. And certainly, Nagito has that side to him. He absolutely has sexual interest, urges and whatnot. It’s just not a highly key component to his characterisation. The point I want to make is: this song was a really good method to explore his feelings towards intimacy in a natural way, as well as provide more depth and context to attitudes he expressed in canon but couldn’t be explored to their fullest because, you know, it’s a story about murder, not Nagito’s feelings. The way he groups hope, love and sex as this euphoric thing, a singular whirlwind of emotions rather than separate happenings, is telling toward this desire he has for these things, the way he sees them as interconnected, and, with the way the song is so upbeat and uplifting, his hope that he can achieve it. 

 Nagito is someone who strongly believes in the idea that people are born a certain way, either hopeful or hopeless, talented or untalented. In short, destiny. And in this song, he speaks directly to the person he believes he’s destined for.

In the school campus at midnight, my heart throbs as I continue waiting "I was born for the sake of meeting you" I’II think at the moment

 This song puts a tangible goal on this “Absolute Hope”, rather than the vague “overcoming Despair” thing he talks about all the time. Nagito really, truly wants to believe - and seems to believe - that his soulmate is out there, and it isn’t too late to make a deep and meaningful connection with somebody; someone who will be just as eager to reciprocate. Someone he can be unafraid with, captivated with, and with whom, he can experience that Ultimate Hope. It’s even in the title - the moment he meets such a person, is the moment true Hope itself is born. Something far stronger than what already exists in the world. 

 Zansakura, the companion piece to ZKB, is worlds apart in many ways. 

 It is, according to Megumi, how Nagito feels on the “inside”, the other side of the proverbial coin to ZKB being how he feels on the “outside”. Likely, this means that part deep within him he doesn’t let others see. This is present in the overall tone alone. While ZKB embodied in it that uplifting way which Nagito talks about Ultimate Hope, Zansakura is much more somber. ZKB echoes the Nagito we see through Hajime’s eyes; while Zansakura is more congruent with those fleeting moments we experience the game from his perspective, wherein he is even more down on himself. As we play through the Final Dead Room with him, we see that the excessive way which he berates himself out loud is nothing compared to the second-guessing and self-debasement that goes through his mind. It truly is a dark and melancholy place, which shows through in the slow, sad melody of Zansakura. 

 This one takes the imagery to a whole other level, relying primarily on the cultural and symbolic relevancy of cherry blossoms. I’ve written about all this before, so for the sake of those who have been around this blog a while, I’ll try to summarise as best as I can. 

 In Japan, Cherry Blossoms are symbolic of the ephemeral nature of life -- in other words, the fleetingness and impermanence of it all. In no small degree, the connection between the symbolism of Cherry Blossoms and life and death comes from the influence of Buddhist culture, and is embodied specifically in the concept of mono no aware. This can be translated a number of ways that all pretty much come back to the same idea of existing for only a short period of time. It’s used to describe the awareness of impermanence, the transience of things, and a sadness or wistfulness as their passing; and a deeper sadness about this being the reality of things. I know this seems boring and irrelevant, but please keep especially this last bit in mind, as it’s very important to the meaning behind this song. 

 The most popular variety of Cherry Blossom in Japan are the Somei Yoshino, which are almost pure white and tinged with pale pink near the stem. Although this song was written after the fact, I have to wonder if this was always intended to be part of the character’s aesthetic, because these colours are reflected in Nagito’s character design - specifically, his hair. Anyway, the Somei Yoshino typically bloom and fall within a week. Winter Sakura or Fuyuzakura begin blooming in autumn and continue sporadically throughout winter alone. 

 Though Cherry Blossoms are an important, and even iconic image for the country, most people are surprised to learn they don’t last for very long. For Nagito to compare himself to these flowers is to admit that he, too, is here to bloom for a short period of time. It’s also worth noting that Cherry Blossoms are considered their most beautiful, not as they bloom, but rather as they wither and fall. And all of a sudden, I’m reminded of all the times Nagito talks about attaining hope through despair, and how his life has only found meaning as he inches closer to death.

 Yeah, I don’t like remembering this detail because it’s profoundly sad, but our marshmallow boy doesn’t exactly have long to live. He was given a year, at most, before starting at Hope’s Peak - and, at the end of the series, is presumably in his early-to-mid 20s. He’s beaten his own life expectancy, but not his illnesses. 

 The song starts in the most typical Nagito way I can think of:

“We can see again tomorrow", I laughed, short-lived cherry blossoms within my heart

 As he always does, he laughs and is cheerful with others, even though deep down, he’s tremendously sad. 

 The song then takes us through this most beautiful and haunting imagery, of cherry blossoms in bloom after surviving a storm*, preparing to wither and fall; until at last they do, and as the flowers are carried away by the wind and water, a lonely, broken branch is left behind, wanting to bloom again.

 (*The actual word used is ‘struggle’, however further down, the survival of a storm is mentioned, along with the flowers (aka hope) which will bloom after. The whole thing is a metaphor for his hope/luck cycle, is what I’m saying.)

 He talks about this imagery as someone observing it (The storm of flowers, the sudden wind / I halt and open my eyes); again, with this idea of a metanarrative lurking beneath a literal one. He does, however, break the narrative to address (presumably) that same elusive “you” from Zettai Kibou Birthday:

To live an ordinary life, and die together with you / Oh, if that could come true

 This seems so disconnected from the Nagito we know, who seems to have no interest in ‘ordinary’ things, and chases only hope. But as we’ve established, the place he most desires to seek hope is in another person. As he spends more time with Hajime during Island Mode, we know already that he admits to seeing hope in himself, and that he doesn’t necessarily take it as good news. But this line, right here, I feel embodies what this song is about, and what Nagito is all about. 

 Nagito is a very lonely person, desperate by his own admission for love and understanding. He knows he has little time left, and his prospects are...dim. Everyone he’s ever loved has either died or suffered at the hands of his luck, a force far beyond his control. And those who remain - namely, his classmates - either don’t like or don’t understand him. In ZKB - again, how Nagito feels on the “outside” - he expresses a hopefulness that there’s still someone he can love, who can love him, who he can experience that Absolute Hope with. But Zansakura has far more pessimistic expectations. 

 By breaking the metaphor to be straightforward and honest for a line, we get Nagito’s most core desire: to live a life with somebody; to love and be loved. Which, yeah, he’s already admitted to. For someone who’s been through so much, that probably seems like the most unattainable thing. Every time he gets comfortable, something invariably rips all that out from under him. And of that, he is painfully aware. Oh, if only that could come true - in other words, he knows it won’t. 

 Once again, do recall the concept of mono no aware. It’s not just an awareness of transience and impermanence, but also an intense, wistful sadness in the face of it. He knows he’s dying, and he knows he’s dying alone. But he’s not frustrated or angry, or even defiant. He’s not trying to fight it. As much as Nagito wants to hope for the best, deep down, he just can’t. He knows this is the reality, and he doesn’t have it in him to fight back. He’s just completely, deeply, helplessly sad. 

 In this song, Nagito’s life is represented as the petals that bloom for a short time, then fall; while he is the broken branch left behind; forgotten, wounded and unappealing; yearning for more time. Deep down, this is how he feels about himself. He is boring and unextraordinary, and yet (perhaps selfishly) he wishes that brief taste he has of being alive would last if only a little longer. He’s not quite ready to die yet, not until “the day this ordinary life is devoted”.

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Reader Viewer Gamer Spy

Ok, maybe not that last one, but anyway...

If you've hung around this blog long enough, you've likely noticed that I tend to talk about "stories" more often than books, and that I use games, manga, and movies as well as written works to discuss writing concepts. This is because I think all those stories, in whatever medium, have something interesting to say, or something worth examining. Yet there exists no decent word for a person such as myself, a lover of stories, if you will.

Labels and Categories

I'm not one to say "I don't like labels", but I do find them lacking sometimes, usually because there aren't enough of them, or they're not broad enough

For example, I'm obviously a nerd and a geek, in that I like nerdy, geeky things. I enjoy learning and research and school, which I would put under the "nerd" category, and I like superheroes and fantasy/sci-fi and comics, which are decidedly "geek". But these don't include my love of books—not all nerds are bookworms—nor my obsessive devotion to anime and manga in particular. I guess “weeb” might be a subsection of geek? I don’t know. Whatever the case, neither nerd nor geek are satisfactory to my quest for the perfect word to describe myself.

And what would you call someone who loves movies as much as a bookworm loves books? A filmworm? (Can we please just make this a thing?). There are terms like “film enthusiast” and “cinephile”, but I think these imply a knowledge of movie-making or a love of niche and cult films that I don’t necessarily have. At the same time, though, I’m not just a casual movie-goer. I really like movies, and thinking about movies, and talking about movies. Why isn’t there a word for that?

Stereotypes from Without

Perhaps the reason there isn’t a word specifically for someone who’s into movies or comics the way there is for those who love books is due to stereotyping. There are people who look down on us movie-watching, game-playing plebeians, so people have been trained to think that liking comics is dorky, or that liking movies is for filthy casuals.

Geeks, I think, have been fighting against this, reclaiming the word for themselves, so to speak. They’ve done a fairly good job at making geekery mainstream, and yet large numbers of people still aren't onboard. For example, the writers of The Big Bang Theory have long labored under the impression that liking Star Wars is a geeky, niche interest. Star Wars! Was that ever niche, even when it came out in the 70s? Even if it was then, it certainly isn’t now. Yet this stupid idea that Star Wars was only for geeks, specifically geek men, is how we ended up with the debacle that is Disney’s new trilogy aimed at a “larger” audience—by which they meant all seven people in the world who didn’t already like Star Wars.

A subsection of geeks fighting the good fight for more recognition is the gamers, and yet this group is not without its stereotypes. Sometimes, this is through innocent ignorance: my sister and I were geeking out over the plot of Okami in the break room of a Catholic school were she worked and one of the nuns asked, tentatively, “Video games have stories?”. She seemed happy to learn that they do, but this illustrates the point that not every non-gamer knows what video games have to offer, so of course they might not consider games in the same category as books or films.

Then there are worse stereotypes. A coworker of mine pooh-poohed video games because, amongst other things, they “don’t promote social interaction”. My coworker, remember, is a librarian... in a library... full of books. When you read a book, that’s six or more hours of being by yourself, reading. You might choose to go to a bookclub or talk to a friend about it, but that is hardly part of the reading experience. Games, on the other hand, often have two-player or online mode. My younger brother is constantly playing games and constantly talking to his friends over Discord while doing so. One time, he was playing a single player game while his friend from out of state was playing the same single player game, and they were talking to each other about it over headphones. Obviously, this isn’t true for all games and gamers (I myself like single-player, offline games), but to act as if games are socially isolating in comparison to books is just inaccurate.

Stereotypes from Within

Speaking of books, the label with the most baggage, in my opinion, is bookworm. It’s not non-bookworms who are the ones responsible for this stereotyping, but the book lovers themselves.

What stereotypes am I talking about? For starters, the stereotype that in order to be a bookworm, you should sneer at other types of media. “The book was better” is something often lobbed at movies. I usually agree with that; the movies of Harry Potter, Something Wicked this Way Comes, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Phantom of the Opera, Public Enemies, and every iteration of Sherlock Holmes pale in comparison to their source material. But some movies are just as good as the book they are based on. This may be because the movie captures the essence of the book, like The Princess Bride, Anne of Green Gables,  or Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (the 1951 version), or it may be due to the movie deviating from the book but still being equally enjoyable, as is the case with The Secret of NIMH / Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and most of Disney's fairytale adaptations. And some movies—and I know my bookworm card might get revoked for saying this—are better than the books, including The Great Mouse Detective, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Last Unicorn, and And Then There Were None.

“Heresy!” cry the bookworms, but why? Aren’t people allowed to like and dislike whatever stories they want? And that’s stereotype number two, which is never encountering a book you don’t like. I usually find this with English majors, some librarians and library patrons, and bookstagramers who take pretty pictures of objectively bad books (I know I just said people can like what they want, but let’s be honest, nobody liked The Casual Vacancy, probably not even J.K. Rowling). It’s almost like, to be a bookworm, you can’t have a taste for certain books and not others. Or rather, you can’t act as if some books are just, you know, not good. Such bookworms fret about libraries weeding books from their collections, but as someone who used to do that as a volunteer, I can tell you, some books are bad. They might be badly written, or boring, or cringey, or whatever (and that’s why they don’t circulate for years on end, and that’s why they get weeded). The point is, it’s okay to not like certain books, and doing so should not make one any less of a bookworm.

The stereotypes go on and on, and I can’t relate to any of them. “Books are better than clothes”; but I really like fashion. “I can’t resist buying new books when I’m in a bookstore”; it’s nice that you have all that disposable income, but I’ll settle for borrowing books and scouring the free shelf. “I remember staying up late at night as a child with a flashlight under my covers”; I wasn’t a big reader as a kid, but that didn’t make me less into stories. And, of course, “I’d rather be reading,” not daydreaming, or watching movies, or getting lost in the world of a game, because you can apparently only get lost in a book.

I know I sound bitter, and that’s because I am. I love books, but books are not the height of human storytelling, nor its primordial form. Poems, songs, and plays all predated writing, and as for novels, those didn't come about until the 11th century in Asia and the 1400s in Europe. Sure, movies and video games are a lot younger, but that doesn't make them any less valuable, unless you believe that books are less valuable than plays and poems.

Let me say it again, in case my non-bookwormish statements have made any of you doubt: I love books. But I also love games. And movies. And comics. Basically, I love stories. I’m a story enthusiast. Why isn’t there a word for that? Daydreamer? Fantast? Storyworm?

I suppose the word isn’t as important as the concept I’m trying to explain. Books and movies and games and plays are all amazing, each in different ways. So why do we have to denigrate some forms of storytelling or act like some are better than others? I can see personally preferring one type of media to another, but if you totally eschew one of them because of some silly stereotype, I think you’ll miss out on a lot of amazing stories.

Thus, in the next few weeks, I’m going to try to convince you, dear reader, or viewer, or gamer, (or spy?) that each of the four main storytelling media—books, plays and television, comics, and video games—each have something unique to offer, and are worthy of a place in the hearts and minds of all story-loving people. Stay tuned!

[armaina]

I've been on the internet for about 22 years, and in that time I've used an absurd amount of art galleries. In light of this, I thought it might be of interest to myself and also others, that I list all these services I've used and write up a little blurb about the service and/or my experiences with it. It won't be any kind of structured review just blurbs, a little bit history, a little bit opinion piece. The sites are listed in (mostly) chronological order, ones that are still around will be linked and all sites with a ø symbol are dead. I'll be updating this page over time as I use more sites so that I can have a quick reference to everything I've used at any time.

øElfwood: The first ever art gallery I ever had and very likely the first gallery for others, I'd go as far as to say it is what made the concept of the social online art gallery a thing at all. It was a form of Juried site though, at the time it was the first and only of it's kind. All submissions had to be reviewed by a person, and while that meant it was easier to prevent stealing, it also made keeping a gallery up to date, very frustrating and it also prevented several subjects from appearing on the site at all. I uploaded fantasy art and started my presence as an online illustrator, sharing with other artists. While the site managed to last long past its relevance, the interface hardly changed and its attempts to make a new layout came far too late in its life cycle and the much complained about art screening never really got addressed making it slowly more irrelevant as more options started to appear. I tried to stay with this site for as long as it persisted until it's final days if nothing else because it was the one that started it all.

VCL: It's amazing that this site still persists, to this day. The site is simple, offers no engagement features at all. It looks like a lot of the users that haven't used the site in some time have been purged, but you could still use it if you really wanted. Illustrative works only, no photography, though I think you can upload text files.

øMediaMiner: The first real 'general art site' I encountered in late 1999. I used this pretty extensively at the time, as it was easier to use than both Elfwood and VCL, and also didn't have restrictions on the subject matter I could have.

DeviantArt: Joined in 2002, it's continued to be a mainstay in my work. Like media-miner, it aimed to be a big catch-all art website, not only that it also permitted written works, design, skins, crafts, just about any kind of art and design that had been neglected by anything available (and is often still neglected in many as you'll see). Due to its ability to house all many different types of creative works, easy to use interface, the ability to discover and engage in ways no other place I had used at the time, it grew very quickly. It set the standard for what was expected from art gallery options from then on out and continues to do so. RSS feeds for all galleries and favorites, the ability to watch favorites, drag and drop organization, folders and nested folders for organization, comment management, dedicated critique commenting, groups, easy thumbnail use in comments, this is just a fraction of the type of features DeviantArt has pioneered and influenced other art sites after it. It is the largest gallery archive of mine apart from my personal archive and will remain to be one of my first choices in what I decide to keep up to date and I'll probably keep it going until it no longer exists. About the only type of file it doesn't out-right support is audio, it remains one of the only sites to cover the most bases. (this is due to a sister site dmusic being prevalent at the time of Deviantart's development)

øSheezyArt: DA made some change and people were upset so they made Sheezy Art. It had this reputation for being the more.. drama filled version of deviant art. It permitted mature content in the beginning but then banned it 2 years later (this lead to the creation of FurAffinity) It had all the features DeviantArt did due to it being pretty much a code fork of DA's old code base, and its only real selling point was that you could customize all the colors on your page. But it's lack of management, updates and features just made people go back to DeviantArt and it eventually folded after empty promises of a rebuild.

Newgrounds: Most people had known this place for its flash games, as did I, but I discovered it had a very nice and genuinely helpful artist community on the forums. Only recently has the site expanded to permit more than 4 tags an image, but the upload system, in general, is awkward. It also has a rating system if that's something someone might be interested in. Illustrative works only, no photography, no literary works. Porn allowed.

øStorm-Artists: Also started as a sort of DeviantArt alternative, I honestly don't even know their angle or what made them feel like they could have their own place on the internet and others I think felt the same as it languished with no real updates and eventually died.

FurAffinity: So I've effectively used this site, twice. The first time in its first iteration before it had a huge major security issue that brought it down, making the original owner give it up. And then again years later I tried it one more time only for another security problem to happen. The site is old and archaic, lacking in features and its only benefit is that it's consistently trafficked. I'll never touch the site again until certain key players in FA are replaced. Many forms of Photography are restricted, not really a good place for design work, no video support. Porn allowed.

øFurry Art Pile: Genuinely liked this site, A lot of people did. In 2006 was the first tag heavy oriented art gallery of it's kind and not only did it use tags it was the first one I remember that had tag filtering. It was easy to upload and manage, so between those features, it became incredibly popular and still gets regarded as a site people wish had stuck around, even now. It's sad to say that it took about 10 years for the concept of tag filtering at all to catch on just about anywhere. To this day only Weasyl and a paid Pixiv account have functional, multi-tag filtering.

øJaxPad/ArtSpots: Started out as 2 sites, merged into one. One site was supposed to be one anyone could use, while the other was intended to be Juried like the old Yerf gallery. They had even imported all the old Yerf art with the original creators blessing. But volunteer support faded and it died due to being unable to not having the people to keep up with adding features and changes to the site.

øArt Piles: A revival of the Furry Art Pile code, it had the features people wanted but also ultimately tanked due to just the singular coder.

øPortalGraphics Network: This was a fairly niche gallery, as it was intended for users to post their openCanvas proprietary event files. The cool thing about it was that it would convert the files into a video format that would allow users to see the full progress of the work being done. You could even download those event files yourself to see them within openCanvas for personal study.

øFurocity: Another one of those 'more social media site than art gallery' sites. I used it for a time, gave a lot of direct feedback to the owner, but the site eventually was closed and merged with FurAffinity.

Paper Demon: Most people haven't heard of this site before, and for good reason - it's pretty unremarkable. One of the interesting features is that it has a strong distinction between its adult and clean sections of the site but otherwise there isn't much more going for it. It still exists and I've hardly touched it. Illustration and Literary focused, no photography, no audio or video support. Porn allowed.

Weasyl: It's actual inception came about by a person that was just looking to get rich off of providing 'a better FurAffinity'. Later on, the person who started the site left, and the administration staff that did any of the real work, remained. It had a strong few years where it kept on top of its updates and features but it has since languished, with hardly any real updates at all and no new features and a lead developer that doesn't seem to trust the artist base, it's difficult to say how long the site will last. It's the only other site apart from Nabyn at this time with a Character Profile feature and the only other site apart from Pixiv to have tag filtering. Restrictions on photography, no video support. Porn allowed.

øNabyn: Nabyn's effect and impact felt very similar to Furry Art Pile and it exploded in popularity quite quickly despite requiring a key to make an account. It had a robust character system that seemed to be the inspiration for many others after it. It also boasted a weird separate scrapbook feature that functioned more like blog/forum posts than an individual gallery. The site barely lasted a year before the owner shut it down due to being unable to keep up with the development of the site.

Wysp: An extremely easy-to-use site, doesn't require much for a new submission and has a Kudos feature that is a separate feature from likes, similar to AO3's Kudos feature. Its aim is to try to drive people to be motivated to draw and gives daily challenges and encouragement along with a critique feature. It also has the ability to thank people for comments, a sort of 'hey I read this' recognition which is nice for those short comments you don't know what to do about. However, it's only geared toward illustrative types of art. Illustrative works only, no photography, no audio, no video no literary works.

Pixel Joint: It does one thing and does it very well - host pixel art. It also provides a lot of resources and tools on techniques for making pixel art. However the community itself is not kind, it's elitist and gate-keeping. Which is a shame because it's platform allows you to zoom in on pixel art without requiring the artist to upload pre-upscaled images. It's the best site there is for showcasing pixel art, and that's about it.

Furry Network: I made an account, saw it was owned by Bad-Dragon, then simply filled in a few info bits in my profile and haven't touched it since, don't plan to. Whatever features it has I don't know, because I have no desire to use it.

ArtStation: the answer to the loss of CGHub, except it's better managed than CG hub and has a better interface. It features image stacks - multiple images posted in a single page, and a huge amount of resources and tools for employers to find work and artists to look for work themselves. Though it reads like a site that's only for 'professionals' the truth is, it has no restrictions on the skill level of a person to participate on the site. I think more people should use it, and just get over the fear that it's a 'professional' site. They offer a lot of good resources and the image stacks feature is so dang nice. Visual art and design only, restrictions of photography, no audio, no video, no literary works.

Pixiv: A completely viable gallery, I simply have not used it for myself. It has an English interface but most of its users do not speak English and it is a Japanese run website. Its organization is largely tag focused and it boasts an incredibly robust tag explanation and directory and is a feature I hope some English site adopts one day as this helps keeps tags organized and accurate. It also has an image stack upload feature, and as I'm aware was the first site to implement such a feature, it also now has manga submission support for an e-reader like features on the site. Other fun features are Image Responses, where you can make a submission a direct response to another submission, and reaction images you can use similar to emotes. You can follow people privately and it keeps likes and bookmarks separate from each other, rather than the same thing. Illustrative works only, no photography, no audio, no video no literary works. Porn allowed.

New Sites:

Furrylife Online: This is only just barely starting out, I don't have a lot of feelings on it yet but I'm talking to some of the people involved in its creation. It's a sort of Social Network Art Gallery hybrid much like Furry Network, except run by better people and already has a nicer interface. Also added a new character feature, making it the second only existing art community to have a dedicated character feature section apart from Weasyl. While it does not have tag filtering at this time, there are plans to add it. Only types of formats not supported at this time seem to be possibly photography, unsure about design work. Porn allowed.

ArtRise: The site isn't even completed yet, not even in beta.

Honorable Mentions:

øHumbleVoice: It was kinda like a social networking art site? I used it for a time, it was kinda mellow and nice. Kinda miss the chill introspective feel.

øzeros2heroes: This started as some strange social media promotion to promote the comic and eventual reboot of Reboot. It tried to find talent for the new works on the site and ultimately flopped. It now remains as a front end site for a production team.

I do not include sites like Instagram and Tumblr in my assessment as they are not dedicated art galleries.

[morika]

I'm curious but how did you get into the Etrian Odyssey series? Everyone has their own story as to how they got into such a niche series so I was curious since your blog is very EO-main. How did you take it for what it was? What's your take on the fandom?

I’m going to put this under a cut because it may be a bit long…( ‘ v ‘ ) / 

I got into EO back in 2014 during the early summer when a few friends of mine introduced it to me here on Tumblr. I previously checked out of a series/fandom and had been looking for a new one to get into naturally so I downloaded the EO4 Demo to see for myself if it was worth getting into.

 EO had been the first game where I was able to customize my party members, play in some dungeon-crawler perspective, and map out things so it was extremely difficult at first LOL. Though with enough reading and understanding, I was able to work things out….with the mapping and following the dialogue of course.

I eventually bought Untold 2 in the late summer about a week or so after its initial release and then I bought EO4′s full game in October. I was sort of playing both games back to back so it was quite an adventure LMAO. But I prioritized EO4 because it was technically the first game I started!

 I really loved the story. It felt really cohesive and I love how no NPC is entirely righteous or wrong. It is simply their take on their universe and how can they make up for what has happened. Which is why it’s all the more special when you can have them fight your battles alongside you and sort of wrap up their story while telling another hence the subtitle Legends of the Titan. The characterization was really good and there was no where in the game where I felt like it was awful in terms of the story. My first guild was going to leave a huge impact on this tale so why not just enjoy it while it lasts? But aside from the aggression for the strata in the game, it really hooked me into finding out what the rest of the other games were about. Especially with characters like Wufan, Logre, and Baldur, who are central characters that often question the very essence of doing what is right for the greater good–I figured something like that could be present in other games.

So I turned back to EO2U and while it felt silly eating monsters and such, it still held up as a fun and likable story! I had heard from others that the Untold series overall wasn’t good but I just played it because I was curious what the fuss was about. And in the end, I still loved the game! The hardships of the crowned princess and her knight to perform rituals as martyrs for humanity–its certainly a cool concept to bring onto a different universe where Yggdrasil’s powers are harnessed for new life. Like EO4, the importance of one’s bonds and the difficult choices you must make all felt really heightened and it brought along some fun, interesting Story Mode characters. 

I loved both games and I would love to wipe my memory to experience them again because they really made me think about story planning, world building, and the approach to important things in writing/drawing. At this time, I had barely posted much into the tags and I often didn’t lurk long because of spoilers but after I finished both games, I just went all out LOL. 

I was surprised not many people had drawn fanart for the game (or my favorite characters for that matter) so I took matters into my hands to draw what I liked from the game. It eventually took up a majority of my art tag posts and then I just started to post exclusively of EO stuff for my art because it just felt good to appreciate a series. And thus…it just became part of my blog forever!

As for the fandom, I’ve seen its nicer and more rougher parts. No fan base is ever going to be perfect and many have their own opinions like myself. But I’ve had a fair share of both along the way–whether I liked it or not. I’m not entirely confrontational myself but I’ve at least stood my ground for times I felt like I needed to. I also made a few friends along the way which was nice! It’s a little quiet sometimes, but I would rather deal with the silence than a flock of people who do nothing but be disrespectful and start chaos.

I suppose by the time I got into the fandom, it was already quiet. But it’s nice to know some people still check it out sometimes because I’m posting things under the tag. If anything, I’ve seen a good contrast between the ENG and JP fandoms for EO and it’s quite different. This is just due to the differences between Western and Eastern fan content cultures–but I feel welcomed in both. Being able to experience both stark differences for the fandoms has been such a ride and I’m glad that I’ve impacted some folks on both sides by getting into the series.

So if I had to end this properly, I’m glad I downloaded that EO4 demo in 2014. It did a lot for me and hopefully everyone had such an experience as well!

[xb-squaredx]

The State of the Square: A Positive Update

To the fair few people that follow me here on Tumblr, it’s clear that activity has…kinda slowed to a crawl. I’d like to apologize for that and give an update on how things are going, and what to expect from my little corner of the Internet in the future. I’ll keep it short and sweet.

My Tumblr was always something I kinda just did for fun and I realize I don’t really…use it much like a social platform. In truth, I’m not a huge fan of its design and I’m kinda trying to fit a square peg in a round hole here by primarily doing text posts. Vlogs or art posts would probably get better traffic, but I always found it good practice for my writing and a good outlet for giving my thoughts on things. But it’s pretty clear that I don’t post much and haven’t done so for the last two months really. It’s not that there aren’t ideas I have for blog posts or anything or that I’ve been too busy. I really just kind of lost interest in putting my voice out there.

I have no delusions of grandeur, thinking one day I’ll hit it big as a popular blog or anything. This has always been a hobby, a way to practice and hone my craft, but after doing this for over five years…I can’t deny the elephant in the room that I’ve put my voice out there and no one really seems to want to listen. Not to invoke self-pity or anything, but most of my posts get little to no feedback whatsoever, and it gets discouraging. Now, again, text posts like mine probably aren’t going to get much traffic on Tumblr anyway, and the Internet’s a vast place, so it’s hard to carve out a niche, however small. Over time too, I’ve found my own output isn’t something that I’m particularly proud of either. Most posts are either reviews that I just kind of scribble out without a ton of time spent making sure I’m expressing my points coherently and making a convincing argument, or think pieces that just come across as thoughtless rants. I’d like to do more content that I put a bit more effort into, so that even if other people don’t like what I do or at least don’t notice, at least I would.

That brings me to the current state of events and where things will be going from here. When looking at my past output, a LOT of my blog posts are very critical. I had a little series going on for a while, “Dropping the Ball” where I complain about how a given show or game series falls apart. A good chunk of my reviews are written because I have very strong, often negative reactions to a piece of media. They feel more akin to rants than anything else. Within my circle of friends I’m noted as the person who complains the most, who finds fault and always seems to be whining about something or other, and I can’t really refute that. But you know what? That’s not who I want to be, and that’s not the kind of content I want to create anymore.

Go on YouTube or Tumblr or wherever and you’ll no doubt find tons of “video essays” lambasting a show or a game. There are entire channels dedicated to just dumping on anything and everything, and really…I’m tired of it. It’s one thing to critique something, to be constructive and offer solutions on how to make something better, and it’s quite another to just tear into something again and again, with no intention of trying to help the people involved with making the thing. Again, most of my blogs fit that bill, and looking back on them now they make me recoil. It’s SO easy to criticize something, to focus on and accentuate the negative, to rail against a game or movie or book for doing something wrong; it can be cathartic, really, and no doubt that’s why a lot of people make those video essays and blog posts. Maybe it’s just my own pessimism, but negativity seems everywhere lately and I don’t want to keep contributing to it.

So going forward, I want to try to turn my blogs (and my own attitude) around, and focus on all the good. On media that succeeds at what they set out to do, and go into just why it can be so hard to have that success. It’s easy to fail, and I feel a lot of people underestimate just how difficult it is to make something that’s “good” in a relative sense, and just as hard to convey that to other people. As far as my writing goes, it’s also stagnated quite a bit lately; I honestly kill my free time gaming or watching endless videos on YouTube and the like. I consume a lot of content, but I need to get back to making some and sharing it with people.

From this point onward, the things I write about are things I’ll generally think pretty highly of, or at least see some potential in. I feel like I need to branch out of video games a bit as while I do love them quite a bit…there’s plenty out there to talk about. Waaaay back for my 100th blog post, I did a little original poetry but never really followed up on it at all, so I want to try something like that again. Small, original content, maybe a short story or two on here at some point? Get some feedback as I work out the kinks on things I’d love to see published one day, that kind of thing. Maybe that’s just a desire springing up from NaNoWriMo again this year. I’m not going to participate, seeing as it’s one of the crazier times of the year right now, but it is making my creative juice start to flow again.

I know I don’t interact with my followers at all, really. I’m pretty bad at that socializing thing, but to anyone out there that follows me or read this to the end, I really do appreciate you putting up with me. To any lurkers, I appreciate you too! I know the feeling of wanting to comment or leave some kind of feedback, even something as simple as a “like,” only to get cold feet in the end. This blog is, at the end of the day, more for me than anyone else, but seeing that my thoughts might resonate with people, even a small handful, gives me the drive to keep at it.

This post probably dragged on for a bit too long, and is all over the place, but it feels nice to get it off my chest. Even if this is the equivalent of screaming into the endless void, I’m glad I put this out there and hope I can deliver on making my corner of the Internet a little more uplifting.

Until next time,

-B

[gloieee]

Languid Seductions

I’ve found myself reading my old blog posts often lately. Until now, I had been reading ones from this past year, because those felt the freshest to me, and hence, the most “real”. Reading through some of the older ones, especially from 2018, I’m realizing that this is emphatically untrue—I was perhaps subconsciously reading through the ones from 2019 because it was light enough for me to handle. Reading through my quarries from 2018 make me realize that life has become so much simpler and “normal” since then. It’s interesting. I have felt “lonely” more often lately, but in a way that seems shared by others. It’s that universal, millennial sense of being alone—mid-late 20s; feeling lost about love, career, life; feeling behind for my years; wanting love but not; being in a new city and not having totally found my niche or groove, all tinged with light exasperation at myself for a lack of many things--trying, drive, knowing, feeling? 

The loneliness I was experiencing in 2018 feels more profound because I really had no one I could fully explain it to. It did not feel shared at all. Even to my close friends, I remember it was a burden to fully explain why I was so agonized. Even with my genuinely concerned friends, I could tell that it sounded “like a lot,” but that it wasn’t fully grasped or relatable. There was a cloud that shrouded my being, a (literal) weight on my body, and I remember feeling it in many moments, even when one shouldn’t have—while letting out a stream of smoke in Fenway waiting for an Uber after a very rare, light-hearted “fun night” out with friends; while walking back to Longwood after a casual beer with coworkers, with the scent of early summer drifting; after I chatted with a dear friend on the steps of a church, a cool iced latte percolating in my hand, the orange, dry sun bathing us. It’s interesting, because I remember speaking with another good friend of mine, in the “lounge” of my sad ass Longwood apartment (touted as a great plus and as a justification for not having a dining table or living room in the apartment, and of course no boys lmao, by my crazy subletter). I said I don’t understand at all how I was so moody throughout college, because I really feel no emotions anymore. Or at least, I didn’t feel the random throes of my emotions as much, at least not without an appropriately inciting life situation. In 2018, there were such clear things to be uncertain about, so many things I just had to get through. I felt like I had become so much more practical as a person then, which is a little laughable, since in Spring of 2019, I had a whole crisis that whipped me into shape (perhaps), and made me realize I didn’t know shit about anything practical. In retrospect, I suppose I was more “dedicated” in early 2018 than “practical”. 

This is not to say that I didn’t feel happy in 2018, or that I was always down. I knew I was working towards something I wanted (at the time…), and because the moments of mutual/ shared understanding were rare, when they happened, when I felt the weight be lifted or at least attempted to be shared, I felt such deep warmth. My moments of happiness in 2018 are still some of my most vivid memories, for I do think they were so real. A perfectly crafted lemon chicken had on the balcony with a curiously strong, sour Pilsner after a particularly dismal day at work; a spontaneous walk along the Charles River on a slightly chilly, windy day as a break from the flurry of MCAT studying; a trip to Haymarket tasting local delectables; finding a favorite bourbon whiskey at a heavily discounted price and enjoying a whiskey+lemon+iced tea at any time on scorchingly humid Boston summer days. 

I was struck by this bit from my post in 5.2018:

I’ve always gone against the current, but not in any kind of romantic, rebellious, edgy way—I find no delight in defining myself as ~alternative~ or a free soul or some bougie highbrow connoisseur of life. I literally hate that shit, perhaps because I feel indignant. I feel like more of a farce than some open-minded intellectual-artist type. Ultimately, I want the plainest, most generic things in the world—revel in security, love the suburbs, love benefits-eligible positions and dream of being a homeowner—but yet, I seem to choose the hardest route to that goal.

It appears as though I have achieved this goal to a certain degree. Or have embraced it more fully than I ever have before. Although perhaps this is my binary thinking coming into play (as my therapist notes). I feel as though I’m belatedly experiencing very relatable, common emotions. Not that that’s bad. It does evidently make me a worse writer—which I had suspected it would—but, I suppose there’s no use to being a particularly good writer when I’m not going to write for a living, at least not in the context in which such good writing is required. 

Of course, I’m sequestered in a beautiful home in the Midwest, where I feel secluded from the outside world, which could be a contributing factor to all this. But, looking back on even my difficult moments this past year, there is a common theme of them being just so very relatable, so normal (which has actually brought me great comfort at the time). Both in their nature as well as how I’ve dealt (been dealing) with them. I’ve been targeting my distress not necessarily through deep contemplation and forging my own path but trite, reactionary decisions and therapy. Memes seem to capture my life. It is, I suppose, what I’ve wanted for a while. But the lack of weight/substance does strike me--not that I’m necessarily unhappy with it, but it is noticed. 

I had a moment recently (it happens often) where I felt as though I had lived my recent years wrong. Too unnecessarily hard in ways that did not amount to much, and just fucked me up a little more than I’d like. They seemed to have set me up for unrealistic expectations. But reading through some of my thoughts, I feel an odd sense of comfort. Even if my thought process from the past is hard to explain to others—and yes, often it is met with deep perplexion and furrowed eyebrows, especially in the crowd I find myself in hahaha—it appears I really felt things and processed them. I do think there is meaning in feeling the full depth of emotions life offers, although I waver back and forth on whether I want to continue to do so for the future, since what’s irrevocably true is that feeling a lot makes life much more difficult. It is still good to know that when I did have pain, even if it’s a blog post that a couple of my loved ones read, I made something beautiful out of it. Perhaps I did make some gold out of pain. 

I feel slightly numb/bored/boring,  if not neutral. I do suppose that is better than feeling distress, which has often been the issue. Amidst the craziness of the world, I suppose this is natural. 

Returning to my current state, some of my favorite songs have been accordingly, extremely mainstream and straightforward. Slow and rhythmic, slight seduction, slight wistfulness, but to a very manageable degree. Subdued emotions all around. Languid desires. The kind you bop to with slightly closed eyelids, maybe do a jiggly dance to alone when deprived of human or sensual contact. These songs seem to be tied more by their melody than their lyrics, which is a bit unusual for me, since I thrive on lyrics and attaching meaning to them. If anything, there’s a bit of a morning vs. nighttime dichotomy. Lazy Weekend morning (Peach- Kevin Abstract and Ace- Noname, Sminom Saba) or deep, flowy evening vibes (Jaded (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign)- Drake and Since Way Back (feat. Drake)- PARTYNEXTDOOR) I don’t resonate with the lyrics of any of these songs, especially not with any sort of depth. But I think that’s how these songs are meant to be listened to. 

 Girls Need Love (feat. Drake) – Summer Walker

Honestly, I'm tryin' to stay focused I just need some dick, I just need some love Girls can't never say they want it Girls can't never say how Girls can't never say now 

You just need some dick with no complications You just need some, you just need some Late night attention, uncondition Fucked up, shouldn't even have to justify I get it, I'm on your side, guys get their way all the time Besides, pleasure not meant for one side You should just do what's best for your mind Girls need love, too, I know

I think this is one of the most seductive songs I’ve heard it a while. So honest and carnal without overdoing it at all (in the style of Trey Songz or something, ahem). Trying to stay focused--so many of us millennials who are busy with life and trying to achieve things, whether it’s self/personal development or career goals. I do appreciate the simple, clear message, and the extremely true point of how girls can rarely say they want something sexually or romantically (and in many other aspects tbh). The response from Drake is amazing, and truly written in the perspective of a woman, which I often find isn’t the case when male rappers/ singers sing about pleasuring women, as they so often do—it’s really often more of a brag on their end than anything. Either Drake is extremely woke or a woman wrote this for him.

The desire here isn’t burning either, it’s understated and subdued. Kind of like an undercurrent. Something on the back of your mind that hits you once in a while, while you living that life being focused and getting shit done. 

Some pretty bits & musings from the other songs, for no particular reason: 

Peach (feat. bearface, Joba & Dominic Fike)- Kevin Abstract 

Ayy, she met me, let me fuck in the shower I wrote my number in the mist on the mirror I'm not the type to tell my homies about ya You're not the type to hold me down through the year

I'll be your baby doll and your bodyguard if you tell me to I'll try to make it all not as hard if you let me through

It's all peaches and cream If you left your love I'll be right

What a dear sentiment, sang in an equally casual but sweet and earnest way. The guitar strumming intro is just so perfect for this track. Like the first ray of sunshine in the morning. The first verse reads like an idealized snapshot of a casual relationship, a modern fairy tale if you will. Love the examples Kevin chooses to establish that this is casual--cause it’s fairly true that girls will still tell their friends about something that isn’t serious. All Peaches and Cream, no one getting hurt regardless of the outcome, even though they both enjoy each others’ company. Isn’t it pretty to think so? 

Ace- Noname, Smino, Saba

And my n- is hella pleased and I bought me a better pen so a Bitch she ain't 'bout to write I'm just writing my darkest secrets like wait and just hear me out Saying vegan food is delicious like wait and just hear me out

This one is more of a milky, gray but still happy kinda morning vibe. Also writing my darkest secrets out here (although to a very scant audience). Also just can’t get over how Smino sings: 

Oh when I say I been at the Ace hotel, you gotta tell me somethin' Fuck is you sayin'? Oh let me tell you, I been on the way What you sayin'? I'm making runs

Just so smooth & flowy~ Buttermilk smooth rhythm 

Since Way Back (Feat. Drake)- PARTYNEXTDOOR

Back to deep evening vibes with this one. Didn’t notice how beautiful and deep PARTY’s voice was really. I always figured it was autotuned (which it may be). Just a fun typical song about hot & heavy sexual tension, complete with a little jealousy, resentment, and flirtation with coy percussion and tantalizing beat switch ups. Love the slow, heartbeat like thuds that make up the outro of the song. 

Jaded- Drake 

Ayy, told me about all your insecurities, for what? Dragged me like two hours to your family's house, for what? Said you need some time but I should stick around, for what? Always felt like stickin' 'round's the same as being stuck

Yeah, you played me, you played me, you played me Low down, dirty, shameful, crazy I need to know how the new n- you got does the same thing I do for a living but it's way less wavy In all the pictures that I seen lately Lord knows, you still look amazin' That's besides the point I'm makin'

Oh sweet sweet pettiness. I’ve always loved Drake from the beginning for these moments. Some petty, relatable shade, but always with that sly cheeky smile that compliments the woman he’s in love with, even while telling her she did him dirty. He’s petty in a lovable way, cause you can tell he really doesn’t have malintent, or really that much bitterness. He’s just telling his story, his feels; he knows that that’s just his perspective. As a completely far-fetched tangent, realizing lately that that’s what I really value in people. People who really own their emotions and experiences, but doesn’t believe that they are fact or universal truths--simply your own truth. You can tell that he just loves his women and is processing his romantic trysts. I do think he truly embodies the “it’s all love” mentality for dissipating beef. 

Stickin round’ being the same as being stuck. Such a smooth, pretty line, but don’t think I agree with that. 

Yo Love - Vince Staples, 6LACK, Mereba

And after the eclectic moods and stories of the previous tracks, the one that hits like a smooth night cap of the most enjoyable of treacly liquors, still with a dark kick. Bittersweet, like maybe Baileys with a shot of coffee, or a tawny port. Menacingly romantic. A slightly twisted, crooning lullaby. 

4.23.2020

[soul-music-is-life]

I’ve been a creeper on your stories for a while. I’m new to PLL (really late to the party) & I really like Emison but there seems to be a lot of hate for that. I’ve never said anything mean to any shippers but I’m attacked when I say anything about them. I just like talking to people about the show. You seem nice when it comes to PLL. And from your author’s notes & your blog you seem to genuinely care about this stuff. What advice would you give someone who just wants to love Emison in peace?

Hoooooboy

Letter to editor below cut

Aww, first of all, thanks for the support. Creep on me as much as you want (wait, that came out wrong…heh). It’s cool that you’re late to the party, as long as you brought chips and dip with you (PS: I was late to the party, too. Didn’t even start the show until it was off the air).

So, I’m going to be completely real with you when it comes to ships. Civil conversations rarely exist. I say rarely, because sometimes you do find people who have differing opinions, but you are able to have friendly conversations anyway. They are rare gems, but they do exist. So all hope is not lost!

I personally try to abide by the stuff we learn in kindergarten. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Be kind. You don’t always get kindness in return. Sometimes your friends turn on you. Sometimes strangers hate you. Sometimes people twist your words and make it into something that it’s not. That’s just what the internet is.

It depends on what platform you’re using. But, yeah, my dude, don’t even try to talk about ships, or really anything you like, especially on reddit or twitter. Because people are just waiting to crap all over it.

Reddit is a cesspool of people doing nothing but complaining and hating on others. Twitter is a little better (meaning some people find their little niche of same-minded friends). The upside is you can block people on Twitter. You can’t on Reddit (at least, not from what I’ve found).

I know exactly how you feel. I enjoy what I enjoy and I don’t need other people constantly arguing with me or getting ugly about it. And unfortunately what the fandom has become is a bunch of angry people yelling at one another. Instead of a discussion about a fun show it’s become a format of “you’re stupid for enjoying that, and here is everything that is wrong with what you like and why I’m superior.” (Legit, go look at some of the posts and comments…they speak for themselves).

There are some shiny moments occasionally. There was a post I came across last week, and it was light and positive and I got so excited. Then I realized why I got excited: because you don’t find those positive posts very often. I’m not saying the show was without its faults. It had some major flaws. But where do you draw the line between joking about the plotholes and personally attacking someone who doesn’t enjoy the same things that you enjoy? A lot of people can’t seem to draw that line properly.

A few friends of mine in the PLL fandom gave up on trying to talk to others about the show because they were being harassed online. I’ve known a few fanfic writers who have stopped writing their fanfics because they’ve basically been pushed to their limit with the hate.

People are so nasty to one another. I’m sorry that you’re getting hate. It does make you question whether or not it’s worth it. I questioned this after branching out a little more on social media. And I’m personally slowly starting to pull away again. Because what I’ve learned is that these people who are out there hating on others are lashing out at real humans…over a show. Generally, people who latch on and bite like that are seriously unhappy with themselves and they take it out on other people.

It’s funny, a show about the dangers of bullying has cultivated an entire online following of bullies. You can’t just talk about the show anymore without an argument breaking out. And that’s not fun for people who just want to enjoy it. To tear down actual humans over fictional characters…there is something wrong with that.

The reality is that we have no idea why people are attached to certain elements in the show. You don’t know what people’s lives are behind their screens. You don’t know what a show means to them and why. You don’t know what they see, or what they feel. You don’t know if it’s something they run to in order to mentally escape a volatile household. You don’t know if it’s the only bright spot in a dark world. You don’t know if it’s something that gives an addict something to focus on other than their addiction. And you don’t know if it’s a way for someone to channel grief and pain into art.

Sometimes, fiction is the only escape people have. People on these platforms who attack first and ask questions later often don’t think about this. They often don’t consider why someone cares about specific things. They often just want to pick a fight because they see someone different than they are, or likes things they don’t like. They don’t realize that what they see is what they interpret for themselves and not what others might see. It doesn’t make one person right over the other. It doesn’t make one perception king over the other. Because what one person sees is not more substantial than what another person sees. Because we all have very different lives. We all watch for very different reasons. But instead of getting to know people who enjoy a common interest, a lot of people choose to bash on what they hate. It’s made a lot of online discussions really toxic, and super childish. There are a lot of very unhappy people out there.

I wish I had a more optimistic take for you, but I think if you’re browsing the boards, you’re probably seeing the ugly side of things, and I’m sorry about that. I can offer my own personal experience and rate each platform in terms of hostility, but that is going to differ from person to person. My first choice is (and always has been) Tumblr. My second choice would be Twitter, but I tend to browse more than I actually comment. And as far as Reddit…I’m considering deleting it. I’ve had an overwhelmingly negative experience on that platform. Some people are nice, but the hate is really loud.

What I’ve come to realize through all of this is that sometimes the best way to enjoy something is to enjoy it alone, or with people who are capable of behaving like civilized adults. Find your people. Stick with them. Enjoy what you love, and forget the haters (or enjoy it just to spite them). That’s my advice. Enjoy it even if others are telling you not to. And if someone hates on you for something, double down on your love for it.

And let me know if you find friendly places to talk without all the judgement and hate. I’d be down for that.

PS: My inbox is always open.

[irishcoffeeslushie]

Nobuta wo Produce review (excerpts) - II

Disclaimer: I didn’t write this, although I wish I had. Source.

The beauty of Nobuta wo Produce is that it doesn’t purport to be anything other than a high school drama, and that’s precisely what makes it so much more than just a high school drama. (Am I even getting my point across? Lol) What I’m trying to say is that the characters are every inch high school kids — no more, no less, neither dumbed down nor savvied up. But they speak from the heart because the writing keeps it all REAL and just lets the characters be themselves, be the thinking, feeling, self-aware teens that they are.

This drama explores the inner universe of adolescence, governed by its own whimsical vagaries and constant flux of emotions. And I love the judicious use of voice-overs as the main characters ponder such things as the future and the uncertainty of life. The dialogue is intelligent without being pseudo-intellectual, complex without being contrived (uh, Dawson’s Creek, anyone? man, talk about a series that tried too hard to be smart and deep and witty, but always felt like it was written by 40-year-olds *roll eyes*). The writing of NwP doesn’t try to be all these, it just IS. Just because the drama is about a bunch of high school kids doesn’t mean it has to be infantile and shallow, nor does it have to play at being implausibly grown-up.

The high school stereotypes are here in NwP, but with a distinctive Jdorama twist. True, the Class Clowns aka the Destiny Duo may not have the most gut-bustingly funny of spiels, but at least they never annoyed me, and always seemed to be having so much fun in their own little world — making funny puns, and punny fun. Beetlejuice Guy would be the closest thing to the resident Obsessive Basket Case, and adds a dash – just a dash! – of signature J-screwiness to the overall flavor of Class 2-B. Only Bando and the Bandettes are given the extreme treatment of all the 2-B students.

The grown-up characters are shown to NOT know all the answers to life, or possess the key to the Fount of Adult Wisdom. They’re mostly shown to be… big kids, really, just more beat-up around the edges and looking the worse for wear, maybe a little wiser and more jaded, and more accepting of the realities and disappointments of life. Hirayama the Tofu Guy (Takahashi Katsumi) provides a solid, comforting presence as Akira’s ever-obliging guardian — though not without his own share of regrets and hang-ups. Hirayama has an interesting dynamic not just with Akira, but with Akira’s volatile CEO father (Masu Takeshi). Both men take their stake in Akira’s upbringing quite seriously, but share an interesting “good cop, bad cop” approach to this responsibility. (LMAO @ the time both grown men bond while assembling the Nobuta keychains in Tofu Guy’s living room!)

I love how the Kiritani family feels like a real family — well, ¾ of a real family. And Nakajima Yuto as Shuji’s li’l bro Koji is the most perfect little boy you will ever lay eyes on… except that this was five years ago and he’s not so little anymore (heh heh). The scenes where the three Kiritani boys (small, medium and large) are just chillin’ at home — dad cooking dinner, Koji doing his homework, Shuji (with that topknot, lol!) patching up a torn sock — are always enjoyable to watch. Ditto the dynamic between Shuji and Koji — case in point: the moment the brothers share in the haunted house in Episode 3 is heartwarming without being hokey. It helps, of course, that Kame and Yuto (then a Johnny’s Jr. who also performed in the “Seishun Amigo” music video, poor kid, lol) share a wonderful on-screen chemistry.

The realism of Nobuta wo Produce doesn’t quite have the gritty, inner-city feel of, say, Dangerous Minds or Stand and Deliver, because there are offsetting moments of hyperreality (e.g. the horrific bullying, the vandalism/sabotage arc, the zany characters) as well as surrealism (e.g. the living spirits, the dream about Santa Claus, and the dream about Aoi) that all add flavor and character to the drama without overpowering its faithful depiction of Planet High School. This balancing act between hyperreal and surreal is a tricky line to tread: a production that exaggerates plot and characters will always feel facile despite any entertainment value (uh, Hana Kimi anyone?), while a drama that is too dependent on fantasy/dream elements can feel rarefied and thus run the risk of alienating the viewer.

The strength of NwP is that it doesn’t skew towards either extreme, but reaches a comfortable — yet dynamic — equilibrium, which is no small testament to the virtuosity of both writing and direction. The finished product retains its solid core of realistic narrative/character development and naturalistic technique, but is complemented by these pleasantly unexpected but contrasting touches of loopy Jdorama hyperbole and floaty phantasmagoria. This drama, ladies and gents, is pure magic realism at its working best.

… Such is the flipside of magic realism, this nebulous nexus of the strange, the dark, the frightening. The drama gives no explanation for the dream, and very wisely leaves it at that.

So, thanks to Nobuta wo Produce I will always, always, always hold Kame and Pi dear beyond words no matter what mess they’ve made — and continue to make — of their post-NwP career trajectories. Maki I remain fond of despite her lackluster performances in Hana Kimi and Kurosagi; I know I’ve been extra hard on her in my past reviews, but only because I think she’s capable of better things and hope a suitable film or TV project will eventually come her way. But my fondness for Maki is cosmically — cosmically I say!!! — eclipsed by all that I feel for Kamenashi of the pencil-thin brows, and Yamashita of the dead-fish stare. Now wait a minute, some of you might ask: How dare she even make that claim? Isn’t this E.G., who uses her blog to flay those boys alive as if there were no tomorrow? Isn’t she the harpy who likes to chain them to a rock and feast on their livers — again, and again, and again?

Er, yes on both counts. It’s haaard to explaiiiin, but the reason I rip these poor boys apart all the time is because I like to play with my food because they mean THIS MUCH to me. (Readers go, “Eeeehhh? Nandeee” *headscratch*) But see, such is the power of Shuji to Akira, that whatever Kame and Pi do in the years to come — whether as J-pop pinups warbling way off-key, or wannabe actors out to carve their own niche in the Leading Man Canon — I will be there to watch them, and love them in spite of it… maybe even because of it. Even if it makes my ears bleed, my eyeballs implode, and my spleen liquefy and dribble out the nearest body orifice (don’t ask which). I am their F-A-N, and their F-A-N for L-I-F-E — and all because of a pair of seventeen-year-old schoolboys who liked to bond over soy milk and take sunset bicycle rides together.

But I’m also the kind of fan who harbors no illusions about Kame and Pi’s dramatic abilities (for Pi, it’s the lack thereof haha); I’ve seen enough of their collective oeuvre (practically all of it, actually *blushes*) to know that Nobuta wo Produce is the best work they’ve ever done, or will ever get to do. (Like I said, that drama was puuure maaaagic!) Since NwP, each boy has made exactly ONE other drama I believe they can be proud of: Tatta Hitotsu no Koi for Kamenashi, and Proposal Daisakusen for Yamashita. (Never mind the rest; the rest are just the necessary evils you slog through to ultimately earn the title of “Kame/Pi Completist.” The reward? A 10-disc set of KAT-TUN+NEWS’ greatest hits. And a lifetime supply of cheap wine. *Kame fans remember Kami no Shizuku and promptly lapse into a coma* And one year’s subscription to AnAn. *Pi fans go: “YamaPi showah… chunyuu!”* Lulzzz)

Between the two, Kame is by far a more natural and versatile actor than his pink-loving seishun amigo; he does drama and comedy better than YummyPi my little Gummi Bear, who really can’t do much but… be himself. That’s why I’ve always thought that Yamashita Tomohisa’s best dramas — Lunch Queen, Stand UP!, and natch, NwP — worked so well because they just let him be his weird, spacey and endearing self — unlike the more recent ones which sucked the sweet, the warmth, the life out of the boy and left this… sleepwalking six-pack with deep-fried hair in his place.

And so, such has been my own “self-revelatory odyssey” that went from knowing nothing about these two boys a little over a year ago, to recoiling from the first photo of theirs (see above) that I came across (and it also made me go, “Egads, these kids look weeeiiirrrrd!” — sounds familiar? well hello-oo E.G.’s KimuTaku Space Odyssey, lol), to acquiring Nobuta wo Produce (I’d heard good things about this netizen hit, but left it on the back burner because of… said photo), to finally giving in and watching the damn drama. And just like my experience with Pride, the rest is history, my embarrassing (and at times, downright incomprehensible) Kame/Pi fangirly devotion lovingly smeared all over this blog. It’s too late to take it back, to act more dignified and unsullied by this dark, guilty pleasure of mine. But, hey — if Nobuta and Akira could live with their weird little selves, I suppose so can I.

And to end this review with the wise words of a Green Day song:

“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go So make the best of this test, and don’t ask why It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life…”

To Shuji, Akira and Nobuta, I hope you had, and continue to have, the time of your life… because you sure as heck gave me mine.

[templified]

Best WordPress Cryptocurrency Themes | Templified

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Best WordPress Cryptocurrency Themes

We’ve just created this cool collection of WordPress themes for cryptocurrency themes.  It’s no surprise that there are so many great options for cryptocurrency magazines, digital coins are getting more and more popular every day.  Currencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple and others are all in high demand and breaking information about what’s going on in the world of cryptocurrency is bigger than ever.  We’ve gone through a lot of these themes to find some of the absolute best themes to help educate readers about mining, about the latest news and information, the latest crypto trends and anything about digital currencies.  If you have a crypto related product or project you’re looking to launch, this collection is a great starting point for you.

With any of the themes in this collection, you can get a huge headstart, saving a lot of time and money, because these themes are purpose built for cryptocurrency news, trends, trading, mining and more.  We’ve tried our very best to ensure that these themes are easy to use, simple to customize and up to modern standards for what a WordPress theme needs to be.  These themes can get you off to a flying start and your pages are going to work well on all devices, delivering a great user experience.

So, we’ve built this collection to help you set up your site and become a leading source for cryptocurrency information on the web.

Bitpal

This theme is called BitPal and it’s all about an incredibly trendy niche, Cryptocurrency.  It seems like every day, there are more and more themes popping up that are all about Cryptocurrency, whether it’s trading BitCoin or any of the other cryptocurrencies, about the latest news and events, even blogging about new developments in crypto.

This is a really hot Trend right now, there are tons of crypto coin websites popping up every day, cryptocurrency trading sites, currency exchanges, ICO websites and Mining Company business templates. I think of that bit Powell is one of the better ones that I’ve seen come along in the recent past. This template offers several different variations, there is the main homepage, which is what is pictured above.

BitPal also offers an app presentation page, so this theme is sort of the multipurpose in that way. There’s a crypto agency style, crypto coin advisor, and ICO homepage, blockchain Wallet app and a standard, traditional blog page. If you want to connect with other people who are interested in cryptocurrency, this theme is a great choice.

No cryptocurrency web tablet would be complete without support for WooCommerce, so BitPal has decided to fully support that as well.  A welcome addition to any WordPress theme, in my opinion.  You never know, even if you’re not selling products today, you may choose to somewhere down the road.  There are multiple portfolio layouts, multiple blog layouts and the overall look and feel of the theme is stylish and modern. I think you could certainly do a lot worse than the BitPal WordPress template.  Check out some more WordPress eCommerce themes in our full collection.

Demo More Information Get Hosting

RexCoin

RexCoin, that would mean King Coin basically, is a regal and majestic theme for cryptocurrency and applications.  Check this thing out if you want a really solid theme.

Here we go, yet another cryptocurrency theme. These things are cropping up like weeds lately and I find it sort of hard to believe. This theme is strategized to be a cryptocurrency Blog, Bitcoin and news magazine, a blockchain specialist template, a financial adviser or mining equipment seller website. For Bitcoin miners, cryptocurrency nuts and folks who love to play around on a crypto-currency exchange, perhaps this team could be a solid choice.

It’s always advisable to use a really reputable cryptocurrency echange, one like Kraken, Bitstramp, Bittrex, Poloniex, Coinbase, Bitcoin Source, BitSquare, Kuna or Gemini, just to name a few.

There’s a lot of scams out there and I don’t want you to get ripped off, so, fair warning.

Listen is pretty solid, I do like the look of it and it’s got a lot of custom layouts, but I think it over relies on the plug-in formerly known as visual composer, now wpbakery page builder. I don’t exactly have anything against these types of plugins, but I think that they tend to break your website more often than is advisable. And it’s never advisable to break your website. Unless you’re performing some sort of an experiment, then I guess it would be advisable. But, why would you do that?

Overall, this is a very soft recommend for me.

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IcoTech

IcoTech is an applications theme that also does double duty as a finely crafted CryptoCurrency theme.  IcoTech was built to be a cryptocurrency themed first and foremost, though it does also work for application promotions. This isn’t exactly my favorite team, I don’t think it brings anything to the table that many other themes do. I’m not sure why you need a theme that is specifically about cryptocurrency or crypto trading, blockchain blogging, Bitcoin and other stuff like that, a general purpose business theme should work just as well. It’s really a matter of what you’re plugging about, not what the demo site looks like. There plenty of much better themes out there buy more experienced developers that can provide the same sets of features. Personally, I would recommend one of those over this template. That’s not to say that it’s a terrible theme, I just don’t think it brings anything unique or important to the table.

Sometimes, it seems like there is a WordPress application theme for every WordPress application. Or for every smartphone app for that matter. There are tons of app developers out there and each of them has a variety of needs. Not all WordPress themes are going to be perfect for all websites, that’s just common sense. That’s why our collection of app themes is so wide-ranging and why we suggest you head over there if you didn’t like the look of icotek. Will be back quickly with more great WordPress templates, have a great day in the meantime.

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Kryptix

I’m not going to lie about this theme, Kryptix seems so hyper-specific to the Bitcoin and Crypto Currency market, I’m not sure how much use folks are going to get out of this theme.  But, hey, here it is anyway, maybe somebody will enjoy this theme?  I guess on second thought, it’s got the style and look to be a pretty decent app theme too, since basically, the two things are related.  Check out this collection of WordPress app themes.

Looking through their list of themes they’ve made, they haven’t really hit a big one yet.  There’s a WordPress portfolio theme called Saline that’s sold 20 times, a minimalist portfolio theme called Black with three sales total.  It looks like their best seller is an SEO/marketing theme called WhiteHat which has sold just over 100 times.  I guess maybe they’re just trying to go too niche with their products, but I think I may be onto something by saying they’re too sloppy.  People notice that kind of stuff and it really does matter.  Anyway, I’ve critiqued this theme plenty so far, I believe.

Anyway, so that’s our look at Kryptix, which may be a WordPress app theme or a WordPress landing page theme to consider if you’re not in the market for a Bitcoin or Crypt Currency theme, because why would you be?  If you are in that market, I’ve got some Doge Coin to sell ya!

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Crypto ICO

Crypto ICO is another in a growing field of crypto-currency web templates for WordPress.  This theme has a cool, modern style and whether you’re setting up a trading company, you’re mining coins yourself, or if you’re blogging about the latest news and developments, it’s a really solid theme for anyone in the blockchain and cryptocurrency niches.  It’s got the type of overall clean style that could be perfect for businesses too.

It has more pre-made Styles then CryptoIGO, so your taste may mean that you prefer a theme like this one. Either way, you go one of the better cryptocurrency websites to be introduced in 2018. One feature that I really do like about this one, it offers an intro video landing page, which is not something that the BitPal template offers. I think that that could go a long way to helping to get the attention that your website deserves.

If you’ve read this far, you probably already know what I go is all about. Well, I didn’t. I had to look it up. It’s a reference to a website called I go crypto University, which is an online educational tool to help people learn about blockchain, cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, mining and other related Technologies. It’s got live Bitcoin prices, around $6,300 as I’m writing this, and a great looking built in blog that helps keep readers up-to-date with the newest news of the world of Bitcoin.

Here’s a confession, I almost bought Bitcoin when it was had a measly price of about $0.25. I was going to purchase $100 worth, just to see what Bitcoin was all about, which would have given me 400 Bitcoins in total. Had I not spent them on anything, like a pizza, those coins would be worth around 2.5 million dollars today. Sometimes, I make poor decisions. This was one of them. But, it’s not too late for you to get in on the ground floor of some fresh and new crypto-currency. I’ve got around $270 worth of Dogecoin currently.

I’m irrationally proud of that.

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Stratus

With a distinctive design and plenty of features, the Stratus WordPress theme is an ideal Bitcoin and cryptocurrency theme, it can help you with lead generation, showcasing products and offering software services. This is a technology startup theme and a premium-quality template for offering the latest news and information about applications and particularly cryptocurrency. You got a live drag-and-drop page builder, ideal for building a multi-purpose website that is packed with information and yet easy to navigate. The setup process is effortless, completely guided and it only takes a handful of minutes. This is a premium design for Tech startups and it gives you forty different widgets and 20 Page templates, unlimited design options are also available thanks to the drag-and-drop page builder. You going to live theme options customizer that gives you full control over the look and feel of your website. This theme has a nearly perfect rating and it comes from an elite author, making this template a full-featured option for building a crypto website.

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Crypterio

This is an ICO landing page and cryptocurrency WordPress theme in one. This theme offers full localization support, real-time exchange rates for showing what a variety of cryptocurrencies are currently trading for. There’s virtual coin widgets and ICO listings. There’s even quite a number of different demo site included, each one can be set up quickly look and feel for your website. I’ve highlighted the cryptocurrency blog, I think that it’s well-organized and well-designed, it makes short work of presenting your content in an attractive way. You get several different pre-made content blocks, ready to use blog layouts, ready-made case study and service layouts and this theme offers an advanced ICO launching countdown a feature. This template has a variety of pre-built widgets that are specific to the cryptocurrency market. You get a ready-made headers, slider Revolution, fast load times and an advanced theme options panel for customization. Also, the documentation and support are thorough and well organized.

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Pursuit

Pursuit is a flexible WordPress theme for apps, SaaS and cryptocurrency startups. This is a premier quality thing, it gives a focus on lead generation and includes all of the features that any successful crypto startup is going to need. This thing features modern templates for cryptocurrency exchanges, digital wallets, Bitcoin companies, ICO’s and cryptocurrency businesses. With a nearly perfect 4.8 rating out of five stars, this Bitcoin centered WordPress theme is great for lead generation, mobile app promotion, software-as-a-service promotion and basically anything that has to do with technology and the burgeoning field of cryptocurrency. You got multiple blog layouts, page layouts and a whole lot more in your download package, making this a real value for the money.

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Cryptic

Cryptic is a WooCommerce ready theme that has a lot of features that are very specific to cryptocurrency. That is probably why it is among the most popular and best selling cryptocurrency WordPress themes anywhere. You get and i e l listing demo, a relatively new feature to help build ICO directories, 40 different custom options for ICOs, a variety of attractive and modern layouts and plenty of features. The design quality is high, this is a flexible theme and the customer support and documentation are among the very best. If you are venturing into a professional crypto trading consultant business, if you are an ICO advisor, if you are trading or investing in Bitcoins or any of the other most popular cryptocurrencies, this theme could you a hassle-free way to set up your website. You got currency converters, stickers, statistics and live price updates, just to name a few of the purpose-built widgets that help make your life a little bit easier.

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Cryption

This theme has been optimized for the cryptocurrency industry, it’s great for building ICO websites, it’s perfect for ICO advisors, consultants and cryptocurrency agencies as well. With six different creative homepage Concepts, you have a whole lot of options when you are starting up your site. There are quite a number of awesome pre-made demos, ICO launching countdowns, multiple portfolio types and a variety of blood lab rats. With a high number of useful content elements, there’s nothing you can’t achieve. If you’re building a website for a cryptocurrency business and you are launching an ICO, you’re going to need a stylish Business site to make a great first impression. For Bitcoin Traders, investment businesses, this templet gives you an awesome looking website that is SEO friendly, helps you dominate the market and attract the right investors to your site.

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Cryptico

Cryptico is a well organized and professional theme for ICO startups, cryptocurrency traders and more.  This theme is one of the best premium templates for the agencies and cryptocurrency investment companies. It’s incredibly simple to use, it provides all the tools they need to make a great-looking website. Impressing customers is going to be relatively easy with a professional design and all of the interactivity that this theme provides.

Carefully crafted with the latest web technologies, bootstrap framework, less, icon fonts and a lot more, this theme provides clean code and it works with all browsers and devices. There’s even a video guide included to help you get started quickly in. You will get quite a number of different pre-made designs and Concepts to choose from, giving your website I really great starting point to build on. Bringing in the right visitors to your site is always a challenge, but with this theme, you are assured that you’re going to have a real chance to develop your business the right way, from the ground up.

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Crypton

If you’ve been searching for a multi-purpose cryptocurrency WordPress theme, this powerful, bold and well-organized theme is a great choice. Crypton is perfect for cryptocurrency and financial blogs, you can use it as a crypto coach website or as a financial advisor page. It even works well for bookkeepers. With a nearly perfect rating, this theme is a great way to help tell the world about your crypto business. If you are starting up a new coin, if you are running an Ico agency, mining coins yourself or something else, this theme is right up your alley. It even works perfectly with WooCommerce to allow you to sell products or coins from the comfort of your web page. This team has done a great job of updating to keep up with changing Technologies, there are multi-currency calculators, widgets for showing the latest coin prices and even a cryptocurrency donation plugin. This is a full-featured theme that I think is a really great choice for crypto businesses.

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Hoverex

Hoverex is a cryptocurrency and Ico WordPress name that offers one thing that many others do not claim to offer. It’s already been translated into Spanish. That’s a pretty cool thing, particularly for those of you who are looking for a cryptocurrency tema. This is also equally suited as Ico WordPress theme. It’s powerful, modern, bold and dynamic, great for a financial blogs or cryptocurrency blocks. If you are a crypto coach or a financial advisor, maybe even a bookkeeper, this theme gives a professional and modern business style that keeps everyone happy. You got several different pre-made designs, one click installation, the powerful theme Rex add-on package and it was optimized for mobile devices first. People seem to really love this theme, it has a perfect 5-star rating on themeforest and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.

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Lymcoin

Lymcoin is another ICO and Crypto-currency theme with tons of features.  Support and documentation or some of the most important things when looking for WordPress theme and this one offers both. You got a multi-purpose cryptocurrency theme that is perfect for promoting new coins or sharing information about established currencies. You can easily import any of the demo designs with one click, this damn is mobile optimized and supports swipe effects. It even uses mobile friendly sliders like Revolution and Swiper. The responsive layout delivers a great user experience on all devices. You get a drag and drop page builder, simple tools for customization and you will not need to learn how to code to take advantage of this is a theme. Updates are swift and easy, the admin interface is powerful and this template supports all languages. Parallax backgrounds, customizable Google Maps, Google fonts, it’s all there.

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DigiBit

Here’s another Innovative theme of for the emerging Financial world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. This is a responsive and retina ready theme that has unique design and unique elements. There are quite a number of page layouts included, making it’s very simple and straightforward to provide the user experience you have in mind. The same offers 85 different handcrafted Elements, 11 custom cryptocurrency widgets for displaying the latest prices, currency exchanges and other information. You also get a custom layout builder for unlimited header, footer and mega menu designs. This template supports WooCommerce, comes with Visual Composer, supports BuddyPress, bbPress, Events Calendar Pro, Contact Form 7, MailChimp and a wide variety of Premium plugins. You get nine different portfolio types and six plug types, access to Google fonts, wpml translations and social integration to keep up with all of your fans.

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[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Keys to Other Doors, Xenophile, Skylark of Space, Roger Zelazny

Pulps (The Pulp Net): When I was first involved in the pulp fandom world in the late ’90s, I saw ads for Keys to Other Doors. Subtitled “some lists for a pulp collector’s notebook,” it was put together by John DeWalt. There were at least two versions, a first version in 1995 with a revised version in 1998.  I believe the 1995 version has a blue cover and was done for Pulpcon.  I got the 1998 version which has a red cover.

I didn’t get it at the time and only recently got a copy. I wish I had gotten a copy back then, as I had to work to find some of the information, and thanks to the Internet and various websites, a lot of this information is now easy to find. But, there is information here I was not aware of despite that. So there still is value in getting it.

  Publishing (Chaosium): Chaosium, Inc., publisher of the celebrated roleplaying games Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, announces the relaunch of their fiction program.

The Chaosium fiction line originally launched in 1992 and was suspended in 2015 during a general company restructuring. Subsequently, Chaosium management brought on publishing and gaming industry veteran James Lowder as a consulting editor to help resolve any outstanding contract and payment issues with authors, editors, and artists.

Lowder then drafted new, creator-friendly contracts for the department, worked with SFWA to register the company as a qualifying professional market, and then commissioned a schedule of new, creator-owned fiction releases, in both print and e-book formats.

  RPG (Jeffro’s Space Gaming Blog): The RPGPundit is back with another video in his series on “Things They Taught You Wrong on Purpose”, this time on the topic of equal spotlight time for all players no matter what. He is absolutely correct that this is antithetical to the rpg medium. One thing I will add here is that the returning to “3d6 six times in order” for attributes produces a far better outcome at the table than going along with the conventional wisdom on this.

Here’s why: When D&D is played this way, most people tend go with the class that has a prime requisite that matches their highest attribute. When combined with a challenging, high death scenario, this results in each character niche being frequently redistributed almost at random. People that would normally play a bombastic high charisma fighter end up playing a scruffy, sneaking thief with hilariously low hit points. People that prefer to play the stout, law-abiding cleric can very easily find themselves in a situation where they have the privilege of making that choice between Magic Missile, Charm Person, and Sleep for the party’s one and only spell!

  Writers (Don Herron): In the course of researching his book on the boxing world of Robert E. Howard, Brian Leno keeps tumbling to interesting tidbits — such as the news item above.

Brian notes, “As far as I know, this is a first — printed at a time when Howard was still alive after shooting himself, and his body was fighting to keep him alive.”

  Pop Culture (Walker’s Retreat): A few days ago, I made a post where I point out that we have sufficient independent media outlets (each with sufficient audience sizes) that we no longer need to put up with the mainstream. We can–and we should–network among ourselves henceforth and cut the MSM out entirely.

So I decided that right now we’re in a position where the various clusters I see as being close enough together to benefit from this sort of move, and this morning I did take that first step: I made sure I was in the livestream for Morning With Pop Culture, the new morning show that World Class Bullshitters now puts on during the week. I lucked out today; Jeff (the host) decided to do an Ask Me Anything segment and I got the question answered.

  Comic Books (Of Wolves and Men): Haven’t posted anything for a while so I figure I’ll share some of the old covers I saved on an impulse.

  Fiction (RMWC Reviews): Star Wars casts a long shadow across science fiction and fantasy. For most people in living memory, it is THE example of the power of Space Opera on audiences. But George Lucas stands on the shoulders of another giant: Alex Raymond, the creator of Flash Gordon, and Raymond stands on the biggest shoulders in all of Space Opera, a humble food engineer specializing in donut mixes from Sheboygan, Michigan, named Edward Elmer “Doc” Smith (1890-1965).

  Fiction (John C. Wright): I have notice more than one fan of mine (I have at least two, counting myself, and my mom) lauding elements in my stories which I shamelessly steal from better authors. As a public service, I would like to mention those authors, and lead you to the original of which I am but a shadow:

I suggest that if you like the family infighting, larger-than-life superhumans, and intrigue, you read yourself some Roger Zelazny’s deservedly famed Amber series. It is a delight: a film noir detective tale (starring my personal favorite character, an amnesiac), which morphs into a fantasy and a Jacobin-style revenge drama.

1970 Nine Princes in Amber

1972 The Guns of Avalon

1975 Sign of the Unicorn

1976 The Hand of Oberon

1978 The Courts of Chaos

The Merlin books take place in the same background, but they are terrible. Avoid.

  Comic Books (Injustice Gamer): There’s a lot of talk of the markets shrinking in sff and comics from the tradpub sources, and here’s a bit of my theory on the comics side.

I think Marvel and DC, with some help from Diamond(active to a point, but I have trouble believing they’re that dumb) might be actively colluding to close the comic book stores. Diversity and Comics has made a good amount of noise over the fact that over 60 shops have closed this year alone.

Marvel is being overshipped, and the stores have to pay for the books. DC had a few exciting and high selling things early in the year, but their more recent moves are really bad from a sales standpoint, and the stores would be more inclined to take those chances after the big early sales.

  RPG (The Mixed GM): Some in the OSR complain about skill systems, particularly due to the introduction of the Thief character class. I understand that with the 3.X/Pathfinder and 5E, skill systems have gotten out of control. In response, I have even heard a call to remove Thieves from the game!

  Pulp (Pulp Flakes): Index to the fanzine Xenophile – part 1

Had the good luck recently to acquire a complete run of the fanzine Xenophile. Have been reading a few issues, shocked by the low prices and high dudgeon evinced by subscribers at price increases of pulps to as much as $3 for a late 1930s Black Mask issue. Didn’t find it indexed, so this is my take on the index, which i plan to submit to FictionMags once it’s done. Will post a few articles from it once I’m done indexing.

  Sensor Sweep: Keys to Other Doors, Xenophile, Skylark of Space, Roger Zelazny published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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Rating The Super Bowl Commercials

Posted by Alexander Wolfe, Feb 3, 2008 10:06 PM

As always, the real contest at the Super Bowl was among the commercials. (Admittedly, the game, in which the Giant upset the Patriots 17 – 14, was exciting, too.) On Fox, there were some 50 ads, which went for upwards of $2.7 million for each 30-second spot. Based on the preponderance of beer ads, it must be an American truism that you can never be too rich or have too much Bud Light.

  There were also a surprising large complement of tech- and Web-site ads, which gives me my excuse for blogging this Super Bowl ad report-card. Dell (Dell), Go Daddy, Garmin (NSDQ: GRMN), Careerbuilder.com, and T-Mobile were all represented, albeit in mostly tepid fashion.

  In crowded marketplaces, as in life, sometimes the best way to get one’s message across is to speak softly.

  That was the case with the best commercial; admittedly not a huge honor amid such a weak field. Nevertheless, my winner is “Doritos Sing Along,” which stepped back from the smart-ass ad agency meme to feature a new singer, one Kina Grannis, doing her song, “Message From Your Heart.” There’s an interesting back-story here: The ad came out of Doritos’ “Crash The Super Bowl Challenge,” which Grannis won, along with a contract from Interscope Records.

  In a less high-minded vein, I’m forced to admit that the most memorable ad was “Booooood Light.” This commercial for Bud seemingly attempted to flip stereotypes about non-English-speaking Americans on their ear, but only ended up reinforcing them in the most boorish manner. (Which is why this also was probably the worst among the Super Bowl ads.)

  Here, then, are my ratings, in the order in which the commercial appeared during the Fox broadcast (tech ads noted via red titles):

  1) Bud Light Dinner Date Fire-Breathing Guy. Unusually well-manner guy — presumably he hasn’t started tanking up yet — having dinner a deux at his date’s apartment. Demonstrating his biggest skill before the meal is served, he lights the candles the way most people blow them out. But then her cat enters the room and, being allergic, his sneezes ignite the rest of the room. Smokin? A little. B

  2) Audi Godfather. Stealing a scene from the Coppola classic, a guy wakes up screaming, but to a car grill, not a horse’s head, in his bed. Interesting, if contextually misplaced, reference. Points for reinforcing the automobile’s brand; I’m mean, who even knew Audi was still a factor in the U.S. market? B

  3) Diet Pepsi Max Announcer Guys. SuperBowl announcers Troy Aikman and Joe Buck appear on screen, so you almost think the game didn’t cut to commercial. But no, they’re “announcing” the intro to a commercial. A boring commercial, which doesn’t tip its hand until way too late to get me excited about Diet Pepsi Max. Pass me the Diet Coke. C

  4) Animated Salesgenie Guy. I’ve always wondered about Salesgenie.com. Do you get 100 free sales leads, or do you get 100 free leads that work? The guys from Glengarry Glen Ross want to know. D

  5) Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. House ad for Fox series about a superbabe with a steel plate in her head. (I’m not rating the house ads or the public-service announcements.)

  6) Bud Light Cheese Wheel. Guys acting stupid over football and beer in the kitchen, while the pretty girls are left alone in the living room. What’s wrong with this picture? The commercial’s mildly effective, though, at tying the watery beer brand to youthful male camaraderie. B-

  7) UnderArmour Nation. Another ad which was hard to place, I’m thinking, this has gotta be a Nike ad. Not the strongest brand when your ad’s look-and-feel suffers from such apparent me-too-ism, even more so when this company apparently occupies a unique niche as a purveyor of form-fitting athletic wear. C

  8) Bud Light Screeching Animals. A bunch of rodents and an owl wailing as a car speeding down a winding country lane comes dangerously close but manages to avoid turning them into road kill. Not driven by a Bud Light drinker, I hope. What was this one about? Couldn’t tell until the end, when the Bridgestone tire logo appeared. B-

  9) Doritos Sing Along. The one straight commercial which didn’t need schtick to make its point. The ad wasn’t about the chip, but rather has a new singer, one Kina Grannis, doing her song, “Message From Your Heart.” Very nice. A+

  10) Prudential Retirement. Not memorable, though one might wish that these ads would be the ones that’d stick with you, rather than the booze commercials. We’d all be happier in our old age. C-

  11) Derek Jeter for Gatorade. Who doesn’t like Derek Jeter? Plus, there’s no steroid taint. This one wasn’t flashy, but it’s effective. B

  12) Go Daddy. This one hints at the Web domain registrar’s infamous Super Bowl ad of several years back, where a busty babe was poised to drop her top before a committee of superannuated Senators. (Hope they had a CPR kit handy.) This time, race car driver Danica Patrick, seen on a video screen — how meta is that? — threatens to peel down the zipper on her top. Why? Still, you gotta hand it to these guys: How many domain-name sellers are known to the general public? Undoubtedly just this one. B+

  13) Buy Dell. A funky, MTV-generation commercial which picks up Dell’s new Red product theme. It moves, and is short and to the point. B+

  14) FedX Carrier Pigeons On Steroids. Birds gone wild attack the city, prompting white-male middle manager to suggest that his younger minion pick FedEx (NYSE: FDX) for his future shipping needs. Huh? C+

  15) Cars.com Doofus Death Match. A twenty-something buyer comes to the used car lot armed with data on his planned purchase, salesman doesn’t give him a hard time, so he says: “Good, otherwise I’d have you fight Klondor over there in a death match inside the wheel of fire.” Who says creativity is dead? For all that, I knew that this one was for cars.com right from the get-go. For this reason, it gets a B+

  16) Tide Job Interview. As this one unspolled, I was thinking it had to be CareerBuilder.com, because I’d read they’d purchased a commercial. For CareerBuilder, this would’ve been cute, since it had a guy inappropriately talking past his interrogator during a job interview. However, since it was for a stain removal pen by Procter & Gamble’s flagship detergent brand, not so much. C-

  17) Budweiser: Hank The Horse. Oh, I get it, he’s a Clydesdale, and he’s pulling a freight train, to the theme from Rocky, the better to prove he’s worthy of joining the beer-toting horse team. You know, if they spent one-fiftieth of the money they pour into beer commercials on medical research, they could cure cancer in a week. B

  18) Iron Man, the Movie. Robert Downey Jr. is out of rehab and CGI-buff as the latest Marvel super hero to hit the silver screen. Coming this summer.

  19) Toyota (NYSE: TM) Corolla. The high point of this very muted car ad is that the voice over was by the Peterman guy from Seinfeld. C

  20) George Clooney, Leatherheads. Another movie ad.

  21) Garmin GPS. Some kind of French vibe going on, with a Euro car driving through some non-American looking city, an actor dressed up like Napolean, and French rock ‘n roll in the background. Sorry, I only know Ca Plan Pour Moi. B-

  22) CareerBuilder: Follow Your Heart. A throbbing, disembodied heart leaps off a keyboard and makes its way into the bosses office. Ah, this is the CareerBuilder.com ad. That sound I hear is Monster.com not being worried. C-

  23) Thriller/Life Water. I really should know who that model bopping with a bunch of lizards to strains of Michael Jackson’s Thriller is. Naomi Campbell, right? (Nah.) A fun little commercial, in spite of itself. Loses half a grade since I still don’t know what Life Water is. A-

  24) Yukon Hybrid from GMC. “Never Say Never.” To what, high gas prices? This commercial was so muted, it made me wonder what kind of internal constituency hybrid technologies have inside GM (NYSE: GM). Certainly, this is not one of Bob Lutz’s “gotta have” cars. D

  25) Boooood Light. A continuation of Bud’s series where non-native speakers from India and China are initiated into doofus bad-beer lingo. This time, though, the ESL geek gets the pretty girl. This commercial is so idiotic and aberrant that it’s … memorable. So it gets a high rating, but please don’t tell anyone I said that. A

  26) Planter’s Cashews. Unattractive 30-something woman bops down the street to strains of Frankie Valley’s 1967 hit, “You’re Just Too Good To Be True.” Grabs a handful of Planters nuts, still looks the same, but suddenly all the guys are chasing her. See, it’s not just about looks! Kinda heartwarming, actually. A-

  27) Charles Barkley for T-Mobile. The cellular service provider is doing the hard sell for its “Friends and Family” plan, with the former basketball star calling his son, or maybe Dwayne Wade, or maybe both. I couldn’t really tell. Yawn. Hey, I’m still waiting for Sir Charles to run for the senate. C-

  28) Justin Timberlake for Pepsi. The once and current pop star is hurled into the air, through traffic, and all about the city, literally, but survives. Dating Britney couldn’t have been this rough. B+

  29) Doritos Chair Guy. Guy in chair eats Doritos, gets beaten up by guy in giant mouse suit. Forgettable. C

HALFTIME

  30) Cars.com. Now our data-laden auto buyer is threatening to have the recalcitrant dealer’s head shrunk. Hey, it wasn’t funny the first time, but I get the “cars.com” tag, which is presumably why they paid the $2.7 million. A-

  31) Salesgenie Panda. Now they’ve got an animated panda named Ling Ling, doing a Charlie Chan voice, pimping for the sales-lead site. In most workplaces, including mine, that wouldn’t be allowed. D-

  32) Shaquille O’Neal Vitamin Water. The basketball star wins a horse race and gets a cold, nonalcoholic beverage as his reward. Most memorable moment: Little kid in stands inserting finger up nose. Decent (the ad, not the pick), but not Super Bowl-worthy. C

  33) Bud Light Cave Men. In ad terms, this one is an oldie but oldie. D

  34) Carmen Electra/Ice Breakers Gum. The breath-freshener preferred by “D” listers? D

  35) Alice Cooper/Richard Simmons Bridgestone. In the second chapter of this tire saga, our winding-road driver has passed the animals and finds a couple of celebs in his path. There’s a couple of hundred bucks in it if you get them both, buddy. (I originally thought Alice was Ozzy Osborne, until a commenter below corrected me. Makes more sense; Ozzy doesn’t need the work.) B-

  36) CareerBuilder’s Wishing. The job site tries to move the needle in its battle with Monster with this “Wishing Won’t Get You A Better Job” ad. Doesn’t. C-

  37) E-Trade Baby. Toddler in high chair buys stock on line, upchucks. Like you or I, after we’ve checked our 401(k) balances the past few weeks. B-

  38) Bud Light “Flying.” The watery brew now gives you the ability to fly, the ad posits. If you’ve been chugging every time a Bud ad has come on during the game, well, yeah. C

  39) Music Girls For Sunsilk. Marilyn Monroe, Shikira, and Madonna for some kind of hair product (I couldn’t figure out whether it was shampoo, or what, from the site.) Bet only two of them have used it. B

  40)Stewie Griffin for Coke. The Family Guy character, as a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon, vies with Pluto {correction: Underdog) for a Coca-Cola, but Charlie Brown snaps it up at the last minute. Where’s Lucy when you need her? B

  41) James Carville and Bill Frist for Coke. Whaaaaaaaat on Earth is this? One of the most off-putting commercials I’ve ever seen. What demographic is this one aimed at? Dead people? Pass me a Pepsi. Please. F

  42) Toyota Sequoia. “The dishes will have to wait” is the theme of this one, as our SUV owner goes out for a spin. About as flashy as your average Toyota. B

  43) E-Trade Baby 2. This kid’s diaper must be leaking by now. B

  44) Taco Bell. Just what you want when it’s a nail-biter of a fourth quarter and the Giants are up 10 to 7 over the Patriots. C

  45) Gatorade: Man’s Best Friend. A very big dog slurps up Gatorade from his water dish. And this is supposed to turn me on to their drink how? C

  46) Will Ferrell for Bud. The egregiously unfunny comedian pitches the watery brew in surprisingly humorous fashion. Best is Ferrell’s close: “Bud Light. Suck One.” A

  47) Hyundai Genesis. Straight car commercial; gets the message across. B

  48) Victoria’s Secret. The game’s almost over, promises the tag line, as a beautiful babe tosses a football askance. Maybe Tom Brady’s after-party. I give it a wishful-thinking B-

  49) Fat Guy for Amp. The Red Bull competitor gets the almost Full Monty, as a hip-hop-dancing tow truck driver chugs the energy drink to get “amp’ed” enough to jump-start a stalled car. This all makes sense in the world of $2.7-million Super Bowl ads. B+

Here’s the Kina Grannis video:

[gabrielcollignon]

Best-Selling Author Shares Thoughts on Storytelling, Inspiration, and Creative Process

Best-Selling Author Shares Thoughts on Storytelling, Inspiration, and Creative Process

Before he was the best-selling author of The Martian, Andy Weir was a computer programmer who wrote short stories as a hobby. In his words, “I thought I was writing for a tiny niche audience of hard-core science dorks.” Now working on his second manuscript with Random House, Weir reflects on the journey he took to get here.

CCO: You had a short-story blog for a long time before The Martian came out. Did the experience of getting immediate feedback from an audience help you develop your craft?

Weir: I started the website because I wanted a creative outlet. I wanted a place to put my creative stuff. I had tried earlier in life to be a full-time writer but couldn’t break into the industry. So I was a computer programmer for 25 years. I just used it as a place to dump my short stories.

I slowly accumulated readers; I got about 3,000 regular readers over the course of 10 years. That sounds like a lot … but 10 years was also a very long time. It was just a hobby of mine.

Absolutely, the readers helped with the storytelling. I would get feedback immediately when I was posting short stories, which was really cool. And I was getting feedback on every chapter when I was publishing The Martian’s chapters on my website. My audience was pretty much nerds like me and so they would point out any technical, scientific, or mathematical errors in the text immediately. It was like having 3,000 fact checkers.

CCO: What was their reaction when suddenly this guy who they’d been following rocketed into the stratosphere of fame with the book?

Weir: They were really thrilled. Lots of people sent congratulatory emails. The original readers are like Andy Weir hipsters; they would say “I read Andy Weir before he was popular!”

CCO: Along the way, especially over a decade, there must have been moments of doubt.

Weir: I actually didn’t have those moments of deep doubt because I wasn’t trying to do anything other than what I was doing. I wasn’t thinking it was all a means to an end to get published. It was just me writing stuff and posting it on my site; what I got out of it was the feedback and fan mail from my regular readers. I had no idea it would ever become popular outside of my tiny little audience.

CCO: What were your sources of inspiration? What genres inspired you as a writer?

Weir: The main one would be Apollo 13. Both the real-world events and the movie. There’s that one scene in the movie where they have to make an oxygen scrubber and a CO2 filtration system from the lunar module work, and they have to make this contraption that will run the air through it. They’re all floating around in space with duct tape, stuffing a sock in this one spot. I thought that was so cool. It was very MacGyver-in-space. I thought, I want to write a whole book about that.

CCO: The Martian is so scientifically dense. Did you ever worry that you were going to lose people?

Weir: Absolutely. That was a constant balancing act for me. On the one hand, it was an immutable requirement to me that it be scientifically accurate. That means I needed to exposition all this deep scientific crap to the reader, but I also didn’t want it to read like a Wikipedia article. That’s why we have the smart-ass narrator; that’s why there’s a joke every paragraph or two … to keep it funny.

I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from readers after the book got big and they would say stuff like, “I’m not really into science and it’s not even that interesting to me. I love the book, but I skimmed those paragraphs that described it.” For me, that is awesome. There’s this relationship that forms between author and reader. The reader has to trust you. If you get to the point where the reader is willing to just say that he trusts that everything is correct, and that he can skim that paragraph because he doesn’t need it to be proven to him—that’s rare and great.

There’s this relationship that forms between author & reader. The reader has to trust you. @andyweirauthor Click To Tweet

I didn’t have any idea that non-scientific people would ever like the book. I thought I was writing for a tiny niche audience of hard-core science dorks, but it’s great that it worked out this way.

CCO: You’ve talked about the challenge of just sitting down and writing … how grueling the process can be. Do you have any habits or rituals that make it easier?

Weir: Of course! First thing I do every morning is make sure I’m properly caffeinated, and usually that’s with Diet Coke. Now that I made a bunch of money off a book, I get to do stupid, eccentric things, right? I have a restaurant-style soda fountain in my house now. That’s the wild, partying kind of guy I am … I’ve got Diet Coke on tap.

After caffeinating, I’ll spend 30 minutes to an hour answering fan mail in the morning. It’s a nice warm-up because I’m writing, but I’m not straight into the book. I also like to take a walk every day. Other than that, I try to set myself a word count.

I try to get 1,000 words done a day. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I blow right past it when I’m really motivated. Another writer (I don’t remember who it was, unfortunately) once told me: Sometimes you’re very, very motivated, and you’re cranking out words. Other times, it’s a complete slog, and each sentence is torture. You’re lucky if you get 300 words done across the whole day. But if you look back on your work months later, you can’t tell the difference between what were your motivated days and what were your slog days. That’s really encouraging when I’m having a rough day.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Productivity Killers for Marketers and How to Fix Them

CCO: If you think of story archetypes, one popular archetype is the so-called hero’s journey. In it, the hero encounters a monster – that monster sometimes is of the physical world, but sometimes it’s a psychological monster. On your hero’s journey, what is your monster?

Weir: It’s definitely a man-vs.-himself plot. There are the four classic plots: man vs. nature, man vs. society, man vs. man, and man vs. himself. Well, mine’s the last one. I have a bunch of anxieties. I struggled with depression when I was younger. Later in life, I had severe anxiety problems, to the point where I was dramatically reducing the quality of my life. Now, I have therapy and meds, which help a lot. That’s my monster. It’s just me.

CCO: Do you think that struggle makes its way into your writing? Does it inform your writing in some way?

Weir: I don’t know. I’ve put thought into that. I’m just not sure. The whole time I wrote The Martian, I was still suffering from pretty severe anxiety issues. Anxiety makes you paranoid about the way the world is going to screw you over. Did that help me write a story about a guy who’s on a world that’s literally trying to kill him at every turn? I don’t know, maybe. I honestly don’t know the answer to that.

The hardest thing to analyze is yourself. It’s so much easier to look at someone else and notice a particular problem and point it out to them. It’s very easy to do that. But it’s very hard to do it to yourself. So I honestly don’t know.

CCO: One thing I see marketers struggle with is taking on more ambitious projects. It’s easier to do a little 3-minute video to get an audience’s attention. It’s much harder to take on more complex projects, be they long form content, documentaries – topics and projects with more depth and subtlety. Can you offer words of inspiration?

Weir: The most important thing is to find the interesting part. I think marketers are very message-focused. They know what they want people to hear. They have to work backwards from there to figure out how to make that happen. What they should do is find the thing that’s unique or interesting that captures people’s attention. Figure out what that thing is; don’t worry about the message right now. Just find the interesting part, and then figure out how to link that to the message.

Find the interesting part of your story and then work towards the message, says @andyweirauthor. Click To Tweet

One of the most successful content marketing projects I ever saw was a documentary about FedEx way back in the late 1980s. Back then everything went to their central airport in Tennessee. If you FedExed a package to your next-door neighbor, it would go to Tennessee and then come back. It was the most efficient way on average for dealing with shipping. The documentary showed the whole process in detail. This was in the ’80s, when we were used to the U.S. Postal Service, which could take six to eight weeks to deliver a package. With FedEx, you could order something by phone today, and it would be at our houses by tomorrow. It was a complete disruption in the delivery system. The documentary lets you see the inner workings at FedEx.

Audiences are extremely aware of preachiness, especially in the modern era. Hollywood has decided that everything has to have some freaking political message, which drives me crazy. The Martian, by the way, had no political message. Dude didn’t want to die … that’s it. People quickly, even if they don’t do it consciously, identify the message, get mildly annoyed at it, and then start ignoring the parts of the movie that push that. That’s why I try to avoid it.

Instead, find the interesting part of your story and then work towards the message, rather than desperately starting with the message and trying to work towards the interesting part.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Documentary Storytelling: 6 Examples From Brands That Nail It

One Thing Is Killing Content Marketing and Everyone Is Ignoring It

This article originally appeared in the February issue of CCO magazine. Subscribe for your free print copy today.

Andy Weir was the keynote speaker at last year’s Intelligent Content Conference, the content strategy event for marketers. Register today for ICC 2017, March 28 to 30 in Las Vegas. Use code BLOG100 to save $100.00.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Best-Selling Author Shares Thoughts on Storytelling, Inspiration, and Creative Process appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

[identityshine]

Best-Selling Author Shares Thoughts on Storytelling, Inspiration, and Creative Process

Before he was the best-selling author of The Martian, Andy Weir was a computer programmer who wrote short stories as a hobby. In his words, “I thought I was writing for a tiny niche audience of hard-core science dorks.” Now working on his second manuscript with Random House, Weir reflects on the journey he took to get here.

CCO: You had a short-story blog for a long time before The Martian came out. Did the experience of getting immediate feedback from an audience help you develop your craft?

Weir: I started the website because I wanted a creative outlet. I wanted a place to put my creative stuff. I had tried earlier in life to be a full-time writer but couldn’t break into the industry. So I was a computer programmer for 25 years. I just used it as a place to dump my short stories.

I slowly accumulated readers; I got about 3,000 regular readers over the course of 10 years. That sounds like a lot … but 10 years was also a very long time. It was just a hobby of mine.

Absolutely, the readers helped with the storytelling. I would get feedback immediately when I was posting short stories, which was really cool. And I was getting feedback on every chapter when I was publishing The Martian’s chapters on my website. My audience was pretty much nerds like me and so they would point out any technical, scientific, or mathematical errors in the text immediately. It was like having 3,000 fact checkers.

CCO: What was their reaction when suddenly this guy who they’d been following rocketed into the stratosphere of fame with the book?

Weir: They were really thrilled. Lots of people sent congratulatory emails. The original readers are like Andy Weir hipsters; they would say “I read Andy Weir before he was popular!”

CCO: Along the way, especially over a decade, there must have been moments of doubt.

Weir: I actually didn’t have those moments of deep doubt because I wasn’t trying to do anything other than what I was doing. I wasn’t thinking it was all a means to an end to get published. It was just me writing stuff and posting it on my site; what I got out of it was the feedback and fan mail from my regular readers. I had no idea it would ever become popular outside of my tiny little audience.

CCO: What were your sources of inspiration? What genres inspired you as a writer?

Weir: The main one would be Apollo 13. Both the real-world events and the movie. There’s that one scene in the movie where they have to make an oxygen scrubber and a CO2 filtration system from the lunar module work, and they have to make this contraption that will run the air through it. They’re all floating around in space with duct tape, stuffing a sock in this one spot. I thought that was so cool. It was very MacGyver-in-space. I thought, I want to write a whole book about that.

CCO: The Martian is so scientifically dense. Did you ever worry that you were going to lose people?

Weir: Absolutely. That was a constant balancing act for me. On the one hand, it was an immutable requirement to me that it be scientifically accurate. That means I needed to exposition all this deep scientific crap to the reader, but I also didn’t want it to read like a Wikipedia article. That’s why we have the smart-ass narrator; that’s why there’s a joke every paragraph or two … to keep it funny.

I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from readers after the book got big and they would say stuff like, “I’m not really into science and it’s not even that interesting to me. I love the book, but I skimmed those paragraphs that described it.” For me, that is awesome. There’s this relationship that forms between author and reader. The reader has to trust you. If you get to the point where the reader is willing to just say that he trusts that everything is correct, and that he can skim that paragraph because he doesn’t need it to be proven to him—that’s rare and great.

There’s this relationship that forms between author & reader. The reader has to trust you. @andyweirauthor Click To Tweet

I didn’t have any idea that non-scientific people would ever like the book. I thought I was writing for a tiny niche audience of hard-core science dorks, but it’s great that it worked out this way.

CCO: You’ve talked about the challenge of just sitting down and writing �� how grueling the process can be. Do you have any habits or rituals that make it easier?

Weir: Of course! First thing I do every morning is make sure I’m properly caffeinated, and usually that’s with Diet Coke. Now that I made a bunch of money off a book, I get to do stupid, eccentric things, right? I have a restaurant-style soda fountain in my house now. That’s the wild, partying kind of guy I am … I’ve got Diet Coke on tap.

After caffeinating, I’ll spend 30 minutes to an hour answering fan mail in the morning. It’s a nice warm-up because I’m writing, but I’m not straight into the book. I also like to take a walk every day. Other than that, I try to set myself a word count.

I try to get 1,000 words done a day. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I blow right past it when I’m really motivated. Another writer (I don’t remember who it was, unfortunately) once told me: Sometimes you’re very, very motivated, and you’re cranking out words. Other times, it’s a complete slog, and each sentence is torture. You’re lucky if you get 300 words done across the whole day. But if you look back on your work months later, you can’t tell the difference between what were your motivated days and what were your slog days. That’s really encouraging when I’m having a rough day.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Productivity Killers for Marketers and How to Fix Them

CCO: If you think of story archetypes, one popular archetype is the so-called hero’s journey. In it, the hero encounters a monster – that monster sometimes is of the physical world, but sometimes it’s a psychological monster. On your hero’s journey, what is your monster?

Weir: It’s definitely a man-vs.-himself plot. There are the four classic plots: man vs. nature, man vs. society, man vs. man, and man vs. himself. Well, mine’s the last one. I have a bunch of anxieties. I struggled with depression when I was younger. Later in life, I had severe anxiety problems, to the point where I was dramatically reducing the quality of my life. Now, I have therapy and meds, which help a lot. That’s my monster. It’s just me.

CCO: Do you think that struggle makes its way into your writing? Does it inform your writing in some way?

Weir: I don’t know. I’ve put thought into that. I’m just not sure. The whole time I wrote The Martian, I was still suffering from pretty severe anxiety issues. Anxiety makes you paranoid about the way the world is going to screw you over. Did that help me write a story about a guy who’s on a world that’s literally trying to kill him at every turn? I don’t know, maybe. I honestly don’t know the answer to that.

The hardest thing to analyze is yourself. It’s so much easier to look at someone else and notice a particular problem and point it out to them. It’s very easy to do that. But it’s very hard to do it to yourself. So I honestly don’t know.

CCO: One thing I see marketers struggle with is taking on more ambitious projects. It’s easier to do a little 3-minute video to get an audience’s attention. It’s much harder to take on more complex projects, be they long form content, documentaries – topics and projects with more depth and subtlety. Can you offer words of inspiration?

Weir: The most important thing is to find the interesting part. I think marketers are very message-focused. They know what they want people to hear. They have to work backwards from there to figure out how to make that happen. What they should do is find the thing that’s unique or interesting that captures people’s attention. Figure out what that thing is; don’t worry about the message right now. Just find the interesting part, and then figure out how to link that to the message.

Find the interesting part of your story and then work towards the message, says @andyweirauthor. Click To Tweet

One of the most successful content marketing projects I ever saw was a documentary about FedEx way back in the late 1980s. Back then everything went to their central airport in Tennessee. If you FedExed a package to your next-door neighbor, it would go to Tennessee and then come back. It was the most efficient way on average for dealing with shipping. The documentary showed the whole process in detail. This was in the ’80s, when we were used to the U.S. Postal Service, which could take six to eight weeks to deliver a package. With FedEx, you could order something by phone today, and it would be at our houses by tomorrow. It was a complete disruption in the delivery system. The documentary lets you see the inner workings at FedEx.

Audiences are extremely aware of preachiness, especially in the modern era. Hollywood has decided that everything has to have some freaking political message, which drives me crazy. The Martian, by the way, had no political message. Dude didn’t want to die … that’s it. People quickly, even if they don’t do it consciously, identify the message, get mildly annoyed at it, and then start ignoring the parts of the movie that push that. That’s why I try to avoid it.

Instead, find the interesting part of your story and then work towards the message, rather than desperately starting with the message and trying to work towards the interesting part.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Documentary Storytelling: 6 Examples From Brands That Nail It

One Thing Is Killing Content Marketing and Everyone Is Ignoring It

This article originally appeared in the February issue of CCO magazine. Subscribe for your free print copy today.

Andy Weir was the keynote speaker at last year’s Intelligent Content Conference, the content strategy event for marketers. Register today for ICC 2017, March 28 to 30 in Las Vegas. Use code BLOG100 to save $100.00.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Best-Selling Author Shares Thoughts on Storytelling, Inspiration, and Creative Process appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

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