#let no one say i put square pegs in round holes when trying to analyze this mess of a story. i have integrity

[kujakumai]

I just wanted to thank you for your posts. I've been reading your blog for a while and you have given me a newfound appreciation for the OG Yu-Gi-Oh and it's themes. The identity meta feels like the whole universe clicked in place at once and suddenly made sense. If I have to ask a question, though, do you have any thoughts on where Pegasus stands on a themes level ? He seems to be the only "main" bad guy entirely disconnected from the identity theme.

Yeah he doesn't! Pegasus's primary purpose on a narrative level is to serve as a greater-scope villain that A) signals a shift into longer, more complex story arcs rather than the smaller disconnected episodes we saw throughout the school arc, B) focuses the story in on the card game and the millennium item lore, and C) provides a more menacing and less sympathetic contrast to Kaiba that allows him to be functionally "redeemed."

Duelist Kingdom as an arc does do a lot with the identity theme, mainly via development for Yugi and Atem's relationship--most notably Kaiba's castle gambit and their final duel against Pegasus--but Pegasus himself is a character who serves other ends. Hope that helps.

[migleefulmoments]

Awww the tinhatters are still upset about the CrissmyGlitz guest list.

xyzpap

ajw720

Sham neither could make it to the other’s wedding................................ (But shouldn’t the fact that neither made it to the other’s wedding tell you what they mean to one another? You can be great friends with someone and not attend their wedding.  Especially since they live a continent apart.) 

notes-from-nowhere

If you look closer, you can see they hate each other.(more that “Always’ “Never” nonsense. If they aren’t BFFs then they must hate one another) 

flowersintheattic254

D especially especially hates it when El/vis forces him to go to his apartment and eat pasta. Fucking hates it. (awwwwww Flower’s remembers one personal story they shared and she’s going to obsess about it as PROOF of whatever she want it to me) 

ajw720

@flowersintheattic254​ and when they get drunk together and go to musicals, complete torture.  I guess ED calling him his flesh light didn’t go over so well. (awwww not to be outdone, Abby comes in with another personal-time story. Whew- that was close. Also it’s a “fleshlight”). 

More acting:

flowersintheattic254

Neither did Elvis calling him a ‘nice guy, but kind of a whore’.

And of course mentioning Ch/ris. (Ummm...soooo now we are trying to out-do one another with raunchy comments uttered by Elvis as proof they are actually friends? Cuz that’s messed up.)

notes-from-nowhere

He sure does 🤣

leka-1998

Mentioning his mortal enemy is an absolute no-go. What did you think was going to happen? (So wait...mentioning Chris to Darren is what got him dis-invited to Darren’s wedding? Huh? You do remember the point her, right? You're trying to argue that Elvis IS Darren’s BFF -why would he mention Chris to ccDarren in public?  That would be really awkward for Darren since he was engaged to Mia and all.)

ajw720

Oh Storyland, funny how d could not remember the name of the series written by NY Times Best Selling Author C/hris C/olfer (a fact D reminds us of constantly), but he knew the name of the place C went to as a child that inspired it all. (OMG...first of all being a NYT best selling author is great but it isn’t up there with Knighthood or aNobel Prize. Second, Darren doesn’t remind us all the time that Chris is a NYT author- you just keep reblogging the same gifs from 5 years ago so it simply seems like groundhog’s day. Third, Darren didn’t know that Storyland was the name of the place Chris went as a child. “Storyland” is the most obvious mistaken name for “The Land of Stories”. He just didn’t know the name of the book.  It’s hilarious to me that it’s easier for you to believe that Chris and Darren are in love than it is to believe he is married to MIa. Chris and Darren have never -EVER in 10 years- been spotted together outside of work-as in they have only ever been seen together when they are actually filming something for pay or inside an industry party and that ended 4 years ago when Glee ended. It’s hilarious that you just laid out your astonishment that Elvis wasn't at Darren’s wedding because they are so close, but you also believe that Elvis would be so careless with Darren’s emotions and his secrets that he would throw a “Chris’ question to Darren during an interview)

xyzpap (I will preface this entire thread with the factoid that Alan was in a play -aka onstage- on the night of February 16, 2019-it makes this entire temper trantrum that much more ridiculous)

ajw720

Another one absent from the big day…………………………….

notes-from-nowhere

Another one of D’s feral enemies. The hatred between them is overwhelming. (Again the NEVER/ALWAYS. Not attending someone’s wedding because you are working or not inviting someone you like does not make you enemies).  

ajw720

@notes-from-nowhere​ The hatred is OVERWHELMING, especially in this photo

notes-from-nowhere

@ajw720​ Precisely. AC can’t wait to leave. In the picture he’s wondering why he’s even there.

ajw720

@notes-from-nowhere remember that time D was the guest performer at AC’s show and D kissed him?  That was acting I am sure.

flowersintheattic254

I’m convinced that Alan didn’t mean it when he said this about D at Carnegie and was in fact just being an absolute asshole and was quite rightly banned from their fake wedding!!!

“ he’s the loveliest, cleverest and most importantly kindest man” (You can publicly call someone “the loveliest, clever and most importantly kindest man” and not be on the wedding guest list. If Darren invited everyone who ever called him “Nice” it would have been a guest list of 8000 but also -he was working)

leka-1998

All the awards for that acting! But there was no place for fakeness at the mockery. (HUH?)

ajw720

And let’s not forget about the time AC got d to absolutely blush like a schoolboy when speaking about his former co-star, yet another person D hates, and that was not present at the sham mockery, I mean wedding.  So much hatred, so much hatred. (this is the dirty video you wanke off to at night, isn’ it?)

xyzpap (I love this one- they found one cute photo of both of them smiling at Elsie two years ago and POOF, “why wasn't she invited- they are best friends” I think you need at least a few photos of them NOT at work in order to prove wedding-worthiness.) 

ajw720

Guess she was too busy…………………………………. (Maybe?) 

xyzpap

ajw720

Also missing…………………… 

So, let’s analyze the photos for signs of PR because we ARE paying close attention to the details and we ARE seeing what other don’t see. Can we see anything that looks like PR? Get closer...do you see anything? Well for one they are all photos and videos which tell us nothing except Darren and his “BFF” are smiling. There are no stories or  quotes that indicate long-term friendships like he have with Ricky (he’s one of my best friends) and Ben (my musical idol became one of my best friends) or Ashley (we are family).  All we have are photo and videos so let’s look at them.: 

Darren and Elvis on Elsie Fest red carpet 2017

Iheartradio red carpet 2018

Darren promoting something on The Elvis Duran show  

Darren and Alan at Elsie Fest Aftershow Club Cumming 2017

Darren and Alan Elsie Fest 2017

Darren performing with Alan Cummings during his Carnegie Hall show 2016

Same show 2016

On Alan’s show Remember That Time 2015. 

Elsie Fest 2017

Elsie Fest 2015

So...Protip: if you want to show that someone is sooo close to Darren that they should have been invited to his wedding, you should prove they are more then coworkers. Friends actually see one anther for more than work. In fact. what you have documented here is nothing but PR. Does Darren enjoy these people? Sure he does but they aren’t his best friends. He doesn’t spend time with them outside of big projects, they don't come to his house, he doesn’t call them his best friends. The people he does call his best friends were at his wedding.  Instead of trying to put your own storyline onto his life (ramming that square peg into a round hole), trying learning FROM Darren. Watch who is actually in life and listen to what he says about those people. It doesn’t matter if YOU like them or not, what matter sis whether Darren considered them his best friends. Then you can stop falling for PR nonsense and start putting square pegs into square holes. The photos you provided here are all photos of Darren and said person acting like they are best buddies because that is what you do on the red carpet or during a performance. The fact is- my dear ccers-you fell for PR 101. 

This little temper tantrum orchestrated by @xyzpap, @ajw720, @leka-1998, @flowersintheattic254, @notes-from-nowhere   

[warmdevs]

New Post has been published on https://warmdevs.com/why-personas-fail-2.html

Why Personas Fail

Personas are my jam. I teach a full-day training course on them: what they are, why they work, how to create them, and how to use them to do great work. I love teaching this course because personas are one of the most abstract components in the very analytical discipline that is UX. I love demystifying this abstract topic, making it concrete, and addressing common pitfalls that practitioners encounter.

Personas are fictional representations and generalizations of a cluster of your target users who exhibit similar attitudes, goals, and behaviors in relation to your product. They’re human-like snapshots of relevant and meaningful commonalities in your customer groups and are based on user research. They often look a lot like this:

An example persona (Source: www.christinanghiem.com/images/persona-01.jpg)

Because they’re abstract, personas have been misunderstood and misused over the years.  They get created and they often fail for a number of reasons. So often UX practitioners come to my class after a bad experience with personas, looking for answers: what went wrong and how can they do better next time?

In this article, I will break down the most common pitfalls that cause personas to fail and provide strategies for future success.

Personas were created, but not used

A failed persona effort is often the largest barrier to future success. Those who have seen them fall by the wayside without having any meaningful impact on a project often write them off as a silly waste of time for the rest of eternity. You will have to work hard to convince these skeptics that personas are valuable, but you can succeed by educating them and providing them with successful persona examples (ideally from your own organization).

Personas do work — or, more accurately, they often work. But humans have a great ability to generalize from a single observation, so it’s understandable that somebody could sour on personas (or any UX technique) if her one experience was a bad one. You can appeal to the logical side of most people by pointing out the fallacy of generalizing from a single example. That said, do track down what went wrong last time and be sure to avoid that mistake on the next persona project. The rest of this article discusses the most common problems.

No buy-in from leadership

It can be hard to even get started if you can’t get buy-in for a persona effort from the ones making decisions. Leadership may be skeptical for a few reasons. “already know” who users are.

The truth is; Yes, they do already know a ton about customers, so it’s sometimes hard to justify doing research on a body of people you have been working with for years. In these situations, it is beneficial to think of personas and present them as an alignment tool rather than a research deliverable. Everybody knows a lot about the customers already, but, when knowledge and assumptions are not aligned, the lack of common ground causes churn in decision making.

The largest benefit of creating and having personas is a clear picture of specific user types that everybody can focus on and align around. Having specific user representations gets us away from designing for ourselves and disagreeing on what “the user” wants.

Personas were created in a silo and imposed on people

This is the biggest barrier to widespread adoption and meaningful impact of personas. Personas should not be an isolated endeavor undertaken by the UX team and unveiled like a piece of artwork. If so, people will use them like a piece of artwork, pinning them up on their cubicle wall to admire once in a while.

In order for stakeholders to use personas, they have to believe in them, feel invested, and have ownership over them. The most successful personas are created with involvement from their end users. Otherwise, people will have no understanding of the data behind them and the rigor that went into creating them. Coworkers may think that the UX team just went away and played story time for a few weeks, emerging with these fake people and asking everybody to play along. That is NOT the attitude we want to foster.

To avoid this pitfall, you must include the persona end users in the process of creating personas. Invite stakeholders to sit in on a research session. Send out a daily recap of the activities undertaken to create the personas. Help people see how your research uncovers the customer segments early on, so that when you roll out the personas there is built-in investment in their validity and value.

Communication failure: People don’t know what personas are or why they’re useful

Personas were created, but then nothing happened, the discussion around them fizzled out, and now they’re collecting dust on a share drive somewhere. This situation often occurs when people don’t know how they can effectively use personas to impact their projects. Ultimately, it boils down to a failure in communication and education.

Personas are not 8.5 x 11 handouts. These are just the representations of personas. What you really want is to get personas off the paper and into the minds of your colleagues. You want personas to be naturally and organically referenced in every discussion and decision that is made. So don’t just create personas; unveil them, and call it a day!

Not everybody knows why they’re useful and how to reference them. It is up to you to educate your stakeholders, illustrate their effectiveness, and solidify their use on projects.  Lead by example: don’t let the personas fizzle out, continue to bring them into meetings to set the stage for discussion. After all, having personas and believing in them provides 90% of their value. Help your stakeholders understand the personas’ value, as well as giving them ideas for formal ways to use them on projects.

Get a core group of advocates to help lead the charge. Do a lunchtime roadshow, or a series of lunch-and-learns. Visit teams and introduce the personas, where they came from, and how to use them. Teach them how to recruit representative users for testing, how to write scenarios for design inspiration and usability-test tasks, or how to segment their analytics with your persona data. If they’re working on Agile projects, coach them on how to influence their ceremonies and discussions with personas as user-data references.

There’s a fundamental flaw with the personas

Personas are not a one-size-fits-all tool; they should be used with a specific, well-defined goal in mind. For personas to be useful, the data captured in a persona should reflect the goal for that persona and the scope of work it is meant to impact.

Often, people create the wrong tool for their needs or they want to (re)use personas created for a very different purpose. It’s as if they’re trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

Consider the following two types of personas created for a bank:

Broad-scope marketing personas: A set of personas commissioned by the marketing team of a large bank to represent all customers for the various banking products offered, such as savings accounts, checking accounts, home loans. The goal and the scope of focus of these personas are very broad. The information gathered and built into these personas will be very general and mostly helpful for marketing to communicate product benefits to potential customers.

Targeted-scope UX personas: A set of personas commissioned by the project team that is redesigning the bill-pay experience for customers who have a checking account. The goal and the scope of focus for this second group are very granular. The information built into the personas will positively influence the interaction design and user experience of the new bill-pay feature.

Imagine using the broad marketing personas for the bill-pay project. Chances are the information in them will not be specific enough or useful. Or, the other way around: the personas for the bill-pay project will not be that helpful in creating marketing materials for new-customer acquisition.

Conclusion

If you’ve had a failed persona experience at your organization, maybe the reason is one of the common pitfalls listed above. Identify where you went wrong and right the ship. If you’re looking to create personas for the first time, use these pitfalls as a checklist to avoid and address these challenges as you go.

Put together an action plan, pitch personas to leadership, analyze prior failures and address corresponding solutions, and communicate the business value of personas to build buy-in. Educate your colleagues, refer to personas in meetings, and solidify their place on your projects. Circle back and show off the wins you gained by having specific user representations to work with.

If you can avoid these common pitfalls, you will have a successful persona effort from the start, you will convince the naysayers, and you’ll never again hear people say, “Personas don’t work, we’ve tried them before and nobody used them.”

Personas can be your jam too.

[thebibliomancer]

100 Days of Comics! 074/100: The Incredible Hulk #400 (1992)

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA this cover is very shiny and usually I’m against cover gimmicks but 400 is apparently thirty years of comics and this cover gimmick is pretty well handled.

And today’s selection from the box of mystery drops us in on an interesting moment in the Hulk’s life.

Recently, Hulk has been working with a group called Pantheon. But there was a difference in opinion regarding the Leader (as in the giant green head man) and Hulk stormed off.

So Pantheon leader (as in boss) Agamemnon pops up in Betty Banner’s (née Ross) bathroom mirror while she’s gargling to ask her where Hulk is.

A surprised spit take later and Agamemnon convinces Mrs. Banner to find Hulk for them. Her ride is Pantheon agent Prometheus who expects her to scream when she meets him.

Betty Banner: “I’m not surprised, since smoking is a filthy habit. Put it out, please.”

Prometheus: “Actually Mrs. Banner... they scream because of my face.”

Betty Banner: “Hunh. I’ve seen worse.”

She directs him to the site of the first gamma bomb test, in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Leader’s not-so-secret city of Freehold beneath the Columbia Ice Fields in Alberta, Canada. And Rick Jones. The Leader promised that he would bring Rick’s dead girlfriend Marlo back to life and since one of his flunkies is the deceased General Thunderbolt Ross, his words have some weight. Rick is at least hearing him out.

He would have probably run otherwise because this sure is a location that the Leader is running. Its kind of like a survivalist commune. The Leader is convinced or at least has convinced others that he’s playing the long game instead of trying to take over the world.

He’s going to wait for mankind to wipe itself out and then the descendants of Freehold will build a better world.

As the Leader argues: “Who in their right mind would want to rule the world now, Rick Jones? The world is a mess. Why should I come in and clean up humanity’s mistakes? No, let humanity choke on the bile of its own creation. True men of vision care about the long term.”

But elsewhere, Hydra plans to raid Freehold. When questioned, the Supreme Hydra explains his reasoning in two parts. Part one: Hydra has lacked a true science division since AIM split off. So they’ll just go and steal the Leader’s research and personnel. And part second: He shoots the person who asked him. Don’t question the Supreme Hydra.

Elsewhere elsewhere, Betty finds Hulk sulking at the site of the first gamma bomb.

Hulk: “Oh, that’s rich. That’s beautiful. You need me. The Pantheon needs me. The Avengers need me. Everyone needs and wants and takes and takes... When do I get something back, huh? When? I’ve been patient with you! I’ve been understanding! I’ve been everything! Where were you when I needed you, huh? You shut me out, turned me away! And now you announce you need me, with this Pantheon goon at your side. Everyone is always leeching off me and taking from me, and it’s never a two-way street! Nobody gives a flip about me other than when they need someone to save their butt. You don’t care, Marlo doesn’t care, Rick doesn’t--.”

And then Betty slaps him (and immediately clutches her hand because ow) and tells Hulk that Marlo is deeeeeeeeeeead. Some crazy woman claiming to be Rick’s mother killed Marlo. Marlo is dead, Rick has vanished and Hulk hates Betty.

He says he could never hate her and then they kiss.

Elsewhere back at Freehold, Rick examines the zombie Thunderbolt Ross. Except he’s not really a zombie.

When Ross died at Gamma Base, the Leader stole his body. Just because. But also because to test his revivification machinery on. The same revivification machinery he hopes to use to save Marlo.

Rick doesn’t want Marlo back if she’s going to be zombie-esque like Ross. But Leader explains that he’s been branching out into the study of auras lately. No, really.

And to demonstrate he turns off the lights. Both Rick and the Leader glow but Ross does not. Whatever force that the aura represents could be described as the soul. And the Leader believes that this ‘soul’ doesn’t immediately dissipate on death.

With his revivification technology at the time, he could revive Ross’ body but not his kirlian aura.

But Freehold is populated by scientists and thinkers yes but also radiation victims and gamma mutates. Including the five survivors of Middletown, Arizona which the Leader destroyed with a gamma bomb. And these five survivors include the preacher Father Jason McCall, alias Soul Man. With Soul Man’s powers and the revivification machinery, Marlo could be revived as she was.

Think about it, Rick.

Meanwhile and elsewhere, Hulk and Betty investigate Rick’s apartment. They find a message from Cap that says that Rick has been questioning the Fantastic Four and Hank Pym. To see what these brilliant men could do for Marlo, Hulk guesses. Betty thinks its pretty crazy that science could bring back a dead woman but Hulk counters that they live in a comic book universe where gamma radiation turned a scrawny scientist into a half ton of hostility.

So she decides to raid Rick’s fridge but Agamemnon’s head is in the freezer. No, he’s not dead. Just sort of hiding in the fridge to talk to Betty. Betty tells Hulk to make him stop doing that. She’s going to end up afraid to use the shower or toilet at this rate.

Hulk is still angry at Agamemnon for making promises to the Leader but Agamemnon reveals he lied to the Leader. No harm in making promises you don’t intend to keep. And in fact, he’ll tell Hulk exactly where the Leader is so they can put an end to the long and bitter enmity they have going on.

Hulk is thrilled. But Betty says he doesn’t have to do this. He can call in SHIELD or the Avengers. Nope. This Is Something He Has To Do Himself. Or a “guy” thing as Betty dismissively describes it. But she gives him a kiss and her blessing.

Meanwhile in Freehold, Rick Jones agrees to work with the Leader to have Marlo revived.

So as Leader’s people set up the giant Marlo crystal into the revivification machine, the Leader explains the concept of ‘deus ex machina’ to Rick Jones. Which also happens to be the title of this issue. And what Leader has named his revivification machine.

Then Hydra attacks and cuts easily through the first line of defense, the Humanoids.

Then Agamemnon shows up and vaguely promises that help is on the way. Except he means the Hulk.

And he busts in through the ceiling of Freehold interrupting some Hydra goons using some Freeholders as target practice. But once one of the citizens tells him where the Leader is, he stalks off in that direction. Ignoring the dying Lou saying “God helps them who help themselves.”

And he casually fights his way through more Hydra goons. Yelling that whatever demented experiment the Leader is up to, the Hulk is going to tear it down around his murdering ears.

Rick Jones tries to stop the Hulk, explaining that the Leader is going to resurrect Marlo but Hulk dismisses Rick as a distraught nut. And then some more Hydra shows up with a tank.

Meanwhile, the procedure or the ritual. Its a little of both because Soul Man is heavily religious and beseeches god for divine intervention. But the Leader’s real game plan is revealed as his second-in-command Omnibus has set up instruments to analyze Soul Man’s powers. Despite Soul Man’s belief that his powers come from god, they really spring from himself. And Leader is going to siphon off Soul Man’s power and use them to become immortal and invincible.

And then Hulk beats up some Hydra goons while ranting that the Leader always uses him to come out on top. And now that Hulk isn’t a mindless brute or the square peg round hole situation of Banner’s mind trying to control the Hulk’s body, it really pisses Hulk off that Leader is still playing him like a fiddle.

And the ritual/procedure is looking quite magical now with swirling lights and the whole center with Soul Man and crystalized Marlo glowing. And then Hulk punches into the scene.

He charges and tackles Leader. And when Zombie Ross in the Redeemer armor opens fire (which hurts but does not significantly inconvenience Hulk) Hulk grabs Leader and uses him as a human shield.

Probably because Leader swore he would kill Hulk for this interruption.

Things having gone a little FUBAR, Rick Jones pulls Marlo out of the crystal cocoon. Only to find that she’s alive but as catatonic as Zombie Ross. And Hulk smashes open the Redeemer armor to reveal Ross, which Hulk angrily decries as another of Leader’s tricks.

The mortally wounded Leader tries to get into the crystal chamber (I guess some manner of healing pod or suspended animation thing or something) but Hulk throws Redeemer Ross at the crystal and everything explodes.

Hulk pulls himself out of the rubble and calms down a little, realizing that the man in the Redeemer suit really was Ross. So Leader really could bring people back to life. Hulk finds Ross but the revived zombie man is now re-deaded.

He also finds Soul Man, still barely alive. The man is babbling about understanding everything now and that the place he’s going (presumably heaven) is so beautiful. He then wishes pax vobiscum (’peace be with you’) to Hulk, kisses him on the forehead and dies.

Leaving Hulk with the dead Soul Man and Rick Jones with the catatonic revived Marlo to simultaneously wonder “Dear god... what have I done?”

Pretty good. Pretty long. But its the 400th issue.

It also includes some Hulk pin-ups and a reprint of the first appearance of the Leader. Where Hulk thwarts Leader’s attempt to steal a nuclear device from a train but Bruce Banner ends up arrested for the theft because he’s left besides the missing device when all is said and done.