#lotus drawing easy video

[aveartz]

This world will throw mud at you. It’s your choice to get buried under the mud or bloom like a lotus - KP Singh

[novelcain]

I have a small head cannon now with my version of reader that I wanted to share with you:

She has a lotus pin in her hair due to her association with Quanyin and it has the added bonus of extra protection (like a protection seal)

Just wanted to share, now I’m going back into my hole to finally finish a fic that’s been giving me writers block for two months now.

*gets slapped with writers block in the face*

Gosh darn it….

(By the way any tips on how to overcome writers block?)

That's a pretty interesting idea. Like a lil fashionable talisman~

And good luck with your writing hope you can get through the writers block

As far as tips go, I unfortunately can't help much in the writer's/artist's block since I don't really get it.😬 If anything I just get bursts of laziness where I don't wanna pick up my laptop cause that's too much effort and so end up curled up in my nest scrolling through tiktok all day. But to remedy that, I just force myself to pick up my laptop or @lovesick-ritz will kindly hand it to me so I can get things done.

So here's the tips that I could think of:

Set a designated area or method for writing (ex. I only write on my laptop bc I've assigned it mentally as my preferred place to write)

Make it as easy as possible for you to write (ie. leave the writing tabs open. I personally never have word closed there's always at least my notes tab open but I usually have at least 3 word tabs don't ask me why I'm addicted to keeping tabs open)

Try to get rid of as many distractions as you can like unneeded social media (having a tumblr tab open is always my down fall cause I get distracted by asks)

Since I have adhd and autism complete silence honestly distracts me more than anything so I like to play this 10 hour thunder storm video on YouTube (this also helps with my tinnitus in case anyone else got that)

Another thing I've been told that help is just start writing little notes or just anything at all and maybe that'll spur you into what you want to be writing

Also some random tips if found useful when it comes to writing/drawing:

If you hyperfixate on writing and drawing for long periods of time like I do (like I'm talking about 8 hour sit down don't move sessions) get water and a couple snacks before you start and be sure to stretch at least once an hour

Remember to specifically do full hand stretches to avoid carpal tunnel and writer's/artist's arthritis

Try to get up and walk around as much as possible (if you can as someone with walking issues I know that isn't always easy or even possible)

One thing I like to do to rest my eyes and brain is after a few hours I'll go to Spotify and play a few songs (or in my case one song on repeat I've been particularly obsessed with the Epic sagas since they've come out and have been constant listening to Survive in the Cyclops saga) with your eyes closed. Staring at a screen all day can be harmful to your eyes and brain.

And for drawing with adhd, if you're working on a long piece it can get frustrating to work on one part for long periods of time so keep in mind that if you're start to feel bored or tired with the part that you're working on it's ok to move to a different part. (ie. you've been working on the hair for a while and start to feel understimulated to move to the face or even a completely different area so get that stimulation) It's not like a story where you gotta remember plot points and continuity the whole thing is right there so just work on whatever part catches your fancy. Or hell if you get bored just draw lil scribbles for a second in a corner somewhere until you feel up to going back to the piece.

Please keep in mind while reading these that I by no means have healthy habits. As I stated I hyperfixate on projects and will often neglect my human needs for extremely long periods on accident; however, I am lucky enough to have a very attentive partner that reminds me and encourages me to take care of myself and helps me when I can't. (Love you Ritz. Literally couldn't live without you~ mwah💜)

HOWEVER! Because of this I am extremely used to living with unhealthy habits and have an OBSENE amount of tips for dealing/living with them so if anyone wants some autism/adhd/depression/anxiety (all of which I have kinda extreme forms of) life tips lemme know and I'll write a whole essay for you. Tho again I will say these tips are not cures. These conditions are permanent so these tips would just be ways to make living with them a little easier. (Honestly I might just make that post even if no one asks for it on the off chance that helps even one person)

[grumpylia]

lotus casino ep pjo tv show thoughts

Okay, I know this is old news by now but I think I've developed my thoughts more on why in particular I didn't like the Lotus Hotel episode, and what I thought they could've done with it instead.

I think one of the main issues I have is that we're speedrunning all of this development! If, in s1, they're already on top of all the mythological traps etc, then I feel we see less tangible development as they (particularly Percy) get older and more experienced within the mythological world. I was fine with the way they handled the Medusa situation, because I felt like there was enough payoff that justified the change of the scene, but I really disliked the changes with the Lotus Hotel! To have them just walk in and be like 'Oh this must be the Lotus-Eaters' just takes away all the tension from the scene, and makes them too wary too quickly. I loved in the original scene how it did demonstrate the Twelve Year Old of it all: Annabeth is playing her architecture game, they're all excited over video games and free food and endless money and it's so much fun!

In the TV show, too, it also would've worked really well as a mechanism to raise the stakes. The show has an issue with tension: there are moments where it feels like we SHOULD be tense, but we're just casually strolling. I feel like the Lotus Casino would've been a great way to help that issue: just this gradual, burgeoning sense that something isn't quite right. We could've gone really eerie: fun melting into this really off-putting feel. It would've helped instrumentally to raise the stakes, too! Instead of Hermes just telling them 'oh, time works differently in the Lotus Hotel', we could've had this really awesome scene where—once they'd had their realisation—they burst out of the hotel, quickly moving down the street, desperate to find some sort of date, some sort of idea of how much time they've lost. The camera suddenly draws to a stop, and we see the horrified faces of the trio, and then, the date. The deadline has passed. It would've been such an easy way to build tension! But no!

I definitely see a lot of people saying that the Hermes scene was good because it built the dynamics between Annabeth, Luke, and Hermes and I don't COMPLETELY disagree with that. I thought it was a decent scene and I liked the character work that it did: I just felt that it was misplaced, and too long and too tell-y. I'm the last person to preach about show-not-tell (I am an extremely tell-y writer it's a genuine problem) but it really is an issue that's becoming more and more obvious in the show! The Hermes scene really slowed down the pacing of the entire episode and—in my opinion—dragged it down. I don't HATE the idea of having Hermes in this episode (it makes sense that he frequents a place of both gamblers and travellers), but I feel like it could've been done in a quicker, more interesting way. Maybe the Trio could've run into him after they've realised? I'm not sure the idea is still cooking but I did really like the taxi scene so I wouldn't be mad if they'd worked out a way to keep that in (although rip that one driver in the books who called Annabeth "your highness" that was funny asf).

I think what I really wanted from this episode was some more, less tell-y, character work. I would've really liked some ATLA kind of filler for the middle of the ep where they're just fucking around in the Lotus Hotel: the plot isn't necessary advanced, but we're using the time to develop different aspects of our characters in a really fun way. Sort of a chance to see behind the curtain, and to see how the trio behave in their downtime.

That being said, I did really like some aspects of this episode! I think the Grover storyline was doing a lot of heavy lifting (Aryan and his big sad eyes were breaking my heart) and I liked the exploration into the Pan stuff. I also liked Percy and Annabeth being silly little billies together I just thought it was nice. Of course, the taxi scene slayed too.

I had a lot more to say than I thought I did about this! I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks :)

[babsaros]

color - Red and purple (specifically blood red and royal purple)

animal - cats of literally every kind!!!

place - i love your response with my whole heart because me too. home and nature trails are where i'm the happiest!!! also i love big cities and huge expanses of nature

video game rn - i have played/own so so many games :') rn Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and Dragon Ball FighterZ !

libra, october

fav music / genre / artist - Oh god i'd have to send you a whole playlist 🥺 i can say my most recent obsession is 100 gecs, i never gave them a chance until a few weeks ago. my fav is Doritos & Fritos by them, but i love jazz, electronic, house, indie, punk, experimental, funk, etc etc etc can i just send you a playlist?? 😩

platform(s) of gaming - i'm a playstation bitch, i love pc but my issue is that i never invest in gaming pc's :') i too prefer the controller!!!

flower - oh you know it's so so sapphic when they ask you your favorite flower ☺️☺️ babe tbh i'd like any flower you present me. sakura, violets, lotus, roses

tv show and/or movie - i'm the type of autistic adhd that prefers stimulation in the form of gaming and music and crafts!! but i won't lie i do actually like everything i watch. my favs rn are Across the Spiderverse, Barbie, and recently started watching DBZ 🥺

favorite season - autumn. autumn autumn autumn autumn autumn. easy uwu i was made for the cold. bonus i live in southeast US

sounds like we should go for a long walk through a secluded woods listening to music sharing a pair of headphones 🌸🌹 🌈

i actually like the gecs a lot too lol, Most Wanted Person In the United States fucks severely! and u can send me a playlist when u come off anon 😉 what crafts do you do!!! if ur stalking my blog u know i mostly draw, but i also like making jewelry/little trinkets and sewing on rare occasion. i'm the type of audhd that always needs something like music or a movie on in the background while i'm drawing, or doing literally anything spiderman is my fav superhero ever since i grew up on the tobey mcguire movies, so ofc ofc i lovedd across the spiderverse too (just wish it wasn't a two-parter! just make one 8 hour long movie already, hollywood cowards!)

also autumn is my fav season too, but i hate being cold! besides, when its hot out i have an excuse to wear cropped tank tops everywhere :p

[recurring-polynya]

part 14 | ao3 | ff.net |

Summary:  He's a easy-going tattoo artist with a love for sunglasses and a talent for drawing skeletons. She's a high-powered finance executive with a neurotic brother and an amazing sportscar. In another universe, they're undead soldiers fighting in a war for the fate of reality. In this one, they're just two doofuses trying to make it to Rukia's tattoo appointment without falling head over heels for one another.

Starring: Rukia, Renji, and an extensive peanut gallery

Rating: Teen, for language and general, low-grade horniness

This time: Rukia and Renji make An Entrance. Izuru and Shuuhei tell Rukia the Demon Arts Tattoo gang's origin story.

Bonus: If you have 5 minutes to burn today, you might enjoy this video of people trying to get in and out of a Lotus Exige. The struggle is real.

[wallpapernifty]

I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy

Being afflicted by the dispatch of addition car is consistently interesting. Because while we may all drive to limits, watching somebody get a austere about-face on accordingly provokes a faculty of “Did you aloof see that?”. We apprehend this array of achievement from assertive cars, naturally. Atom a snouty, mid-engined supercar, and you wouldn’t be afraid if the disciplinarian hit the accelerator and abolished into the ambit at speed.

Advertisement – Article continues below

But what is added impressive, or at atomic added surprising, is aback you see a car you hadn’t accustomed a additional glance to – an bearding estate, a accidental hatchback, a addled repmobile – shoot appear the border with a change of clip such a agent has no appropriate to be able of, its dispatch affiliated to its accustomed looks.

Some alarm these cartage ‘Q’ cars, others alarm them ‘sleeper cars’, and they’re simple machines in concept: cars with humble looks, advisedly accompanying with austere performance. We’re not talking about M cars, RS or AMG models here, and the Lotus Carlton or Aston Martin Rapide charge not apply. Sleepers, by their nature, fly beneath the alarm – they backpack a bashful punch. Scroll bottomward beneath to analysis out our account of the best sleeper cars money can buy. 

The origins of ‘sleeper car’ and ‘Q car’ accept agnate roots. Sleepers are adversary agents who alloy into a adopted country, cat-and-mouse to be activated and strike. Q cars booty their name from Q ships: argosy fabricated to attending like merchant vessels, the letter ‘Q’ possibly cogent ‘query’. Whatever the name, these cars consistently surprise.

I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy – lotus drawing easy | Pleasant to be able to my personal blog, in this particular time We’ll demonstrate regarding keyword. Now, this is the 1st picture:

Lotus Flower Line Drawing – Cliparts | lotus drawing easy

How about image above? is that will remarkable???. if you’re more dedicated and so, I’l t explain to you some photograph yet again down below:

So, if you desire to have all these magnificent graphics regarding (I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy), just click save icon to store the graphics to your personal pc. There’re ready for save, if you’d rather and want to have it, just click save badge in the web page, and it’ll be instantly saved in your pc.} As a final point in order to receive new and latest picture related with (I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy), please follow us on google plus or save this site, we attempt our best to offer you daily up grade with fresh and new photos. Hope you like staying here. For most upgrades and latest information about (I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy) pictures, please kindly follow us on twitter, path, Instagram and google plus, or you mark this page on book mark section, We try to provide you with up grade regularly with all new and fresh shots, like your surfing, and find the right for you.

Here you are at our website, articleabove (I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy) published .  At this time we’re pleased to declare that we have found an incrediblyinteresting contentto be reviewed, that is (I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy) Some people searching for specifics of(I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy) and definitely one of these is you, is not it?

India – Madhya Pradesh – Khajuraho – Chaturbhuj Temple – Lord Vishnu – 106c – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Lotus Flower Drawings Made Easy – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Lotus Flower Drawings Made Easy – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How To Draw A Lotus Flower Easy Como dibujar una flor de .. | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw Lotus Flower.Step by step easy draw for .. | lotus drawing easy

How to draw a Lotus drawing for kids | Learn How to draw .. | lotus drawing easy

Lotus, Lotus drawing and Lotus flowers on Pinterest – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

India – Maharashtra – Ajanta Caves – Cave 1 – Padmapani – 19 – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How To Draw Lotus: Easy Step-By-Step Guide – Parenting Venture – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Image from page 270 of “Collier’s new encyclopedia : a loose-leaf and self-revising reference work .. | lotus drawing easy

flower coloring pages easy – Clrg – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Image from page 568 of “American gardening” (1892) – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw a Lotus Flower Step by Step Easy for Beginners .. | lotus drawing easy

Simple Lotus Tattoo by xionkid on DeviantArt – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Lotus Flower Drawings Made Easy – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw a Beautiful and simple Lotus in Easy way .. | lotus drawing easy

How to draw a Lotus – in easy steps for children, kids .. | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw a Lotus Flower: SIMPLE & EASY – YouTube – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Flower Tattoos Designs Free – ClipArt Best – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Simple Lotus Flower Drawing – ClipArt Best – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

18+ Latest Lotus Tattoos Designs – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw a Lotus Flower – Really Easy Drawing Tutorial – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw Lotus Flower.Step by step easy draw for .. | lotus drawing easy

Image from page 92 of “Beautiful flowers from the Calla Greenhouses, Calla, O | lotus drawing easy

Simple Lotus Flower Drawing – ClipArt Best – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

The post I Will Tell You The Truth About Lotus Drawing Easy In The Next 26 Seconds | Lotus Drawing Easy appeared first on Flower Nifty.

from Wallpaper Nifty https://www.flowernifty.com/i-will-tell-you-the-truth-about-lotus-drawing-easy-in-the-next-26-seconds-lotus-drawing-easy/

[fyexo]

200915 Lay Zhang Is Aiming To Bring Chinese Music To The World

It’s been a few years now since Lay Zhang (also known as Zhang Yixing) released his debut EP Lose Control in 2016. Already a prominent star throughout Asia after debuting as part of K-pop boy band EXO back in 2012 and becoming a prominent television personality in China, Zhang – who is usually known mononymously as Lay – started down a path that year that would turn him into one of the biggest musical players in Asia less than half a decade later: in 2018, he broke onto the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart with his album Namanana, and this year he ranked No. 5 on Forbes China’s Celebrity 100 ranking.

This year, Lay dropped the duality of his Lit LP, split between two parts that arrived in June and July. A multifaceted release that spends its length blending modern musical styles with traditionally Chinese performance elements, Lay’s latest puts the emphasis on his roots. It extensively draws from classical styles and storytelling influences as he attempts to bring China to the world, as he says in the single “Lit” and relays through that song’s highly cinematic music video that sees Lay as a warrior facing down enemies amid a grandiose historic setting, inspired by the legendary general Xiang Yu.

The title track, and the album as a whole, is Lay’s attempt at expressing what he calls “M-pop,” or mixed Mandarin pop music, a genre he’s spearheading with the aim of bringing Chinese culture to global – primarily western – music listeners. Coming at a time when the world is more divided than ever, and China and the U.S.’s trade war continues, it may seem like a lofty aim. But Lay, although he shies away from discussing political ramifications on culture during a conversation with Forbes, has hope that bringing multi-cultural influences together will create greater understandings between one another and different cultures, as long as we take the time to listen to one another. Or, in his case, M-pop.

Tamar Herman: You released the long version of Lit in July, and saw much love for its blending of traditionally Chinese and modern musical elements. What was the inspiration overall for this album?

Lay: I just want to share Chinese culture, so I’m trying my best. Because I’m Chinese and I learn a lot from China, I think our country has a lot of good culture and good traditional instruments that maybe people don’t know. I want to promote that part, and let people know the very dope Chinese culture.

The sound of [the word] “lit” is very close to the Chinese word for “lotus.” I want people to know they can become what they want to be, no matter where they started, like a lotus flower that begins in the root and become beautiful flowers. I was also inspired by the cycle of life and wanted to have a Chinese perspective on it, so the first part of the album is more about the past and [tells] Chinese stories, using more traditional instruments. The second part, about the present and the things we deal with now, has more modern sounds and I worked with great producers like Scott [Storch] and Murda Beatz. Learning [and working with them] so I can mix different cultures on one track, for me it’s amazing work.  

Herman: You released an epic music video for “Lit” as the album’s first lead track, and you’re back again on Sept. 14 with a remix of “Boom” by Dutch-Moroccan DJ R3hab, which you previously released as a single. What about these two songs make them your perfect pairing for listeners to get drawn into your Lit album?

Lay: For “Boom,” I want everyone just to jump and forget. This year is really terrible, right? I want people to forget the bad things and ignore the bad things. Just make happy vibes themselves.

For the second half of the album, my original intention was to have “Changsha” to be the single. However, during the course of the release cycle, “Boom” was selected instead because it really represented a little more what’s relevant to this current climate that covid has brought to the world. I wanted to focus more on that.  I want everyone just to jump and forget. Putting aside the negativity of this year and focusing on positivity.

Herman: How did your creative process differ between Lit and prior releases?

Lay: If I play a video game, my level just goes up and up, right? So I want every year to go to the next level, ever year get better.

Herman: What type of video game character would you like to be?

I’m a warrior. If I can have the opportunity to go to another country, I’ll join the battle with [krumping originator] Tight Eyez (Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis).

Herman: Speaking of... I asked fans if they had any questions on Twitter. And while there were many great suggestions, I was surprised by how many wanted to know about your love of krumping. What about this form of dance is appealing to you and made you want to highlight it through “Lit”?

Lay: “Lit” has a very slow tempo. I just found jazz, hip-hop, etc. choreo didn’t match this song. Krump matched this song, so I tried to learn the [style]. In the beginning, it was very hard to do. I couldn’t copy the teacher, the motion, the action. I wanted to know why. The teacher was like, “You have to spend time in this kind of dance, then you can change.” I tried very hard to practice the feeling and vibe. I took maybe three months, and I’m just the beginning of krumping like a teenager. Level three in a game, maybe.

Herman: In “Lit” you say you are taking China to the world, and you’ve been talking a lot recently about how you’d like to spearhead M-Pop’s growth internationally. What do you hope to achieve?

Lay: I think Mandarin can mix with other countries’ languages to become one song, so that everyone can feel a Chinese vibe whether it’s English, French, Korean. It does not matter, I just want to mix a lot of languages, to create one track or music. If people can guess what English [songs] are talking about, they can guess what Chinese [songs] are talking about. It’s very easy to understand songs. The influence that I want to have isn’t about ranks or charts, but spreading Chinese culture to the world.

Herman: Typically, Chinese popular music is known in English as “C-pop,” with variant categories like Cantopop and Mandopop. Why do you feel it’s time to reframe the conversation as “M-pop”?

Lay: Because I think we need to mix something. It’s a global world. Also, I want music arrangements to have Chinese traditional instruments and other countries’ [instruments] put together. Traditional Chinese instruments, it’s better to use one style of instrument itself not with others. It’s a very unique sound, but you can [blend it with others] to make a new vibe.

Herman: You’ve been a top star in both the K-pop and Chinese music industries. K-pop’s having a moment in the west right now, how do you feel about M-pop’s potential?

Lay: Everybody, even me with “Namanana,” we just mix the languages, English with Chinese. But it’s basic, right? I think now M-pop has to change rules. From Lit, I saw the potential that we can reframe M-pop to another level. Let people know that it’s not just language mixing but culture mixing, instrument mixing, genre mixing. Letting people know that we have distinct instruments and unique sounds in China. I think there’s a potential to take M-pop to another level. I want to tell people, “This is Chinese music.”

Herman: You’ve been performing for many years now. How do you feel your approach to your artistry and performances have changed overtime? What have you realized is important to your craft?

Lay: For me, first of all, I think it’s all about music. If I can’t find the right music, I can’t make the performances very dope. Secondly, I think practice is very important. Practice is important if you want to make an amazing, perfect stage. So you have to spend the time practicing dancing and singing. Thirdly, I really respect my staff. Because we have these guys, they can make the stages, lights, speakers, and things for performers. Also, fans. Fans are very important. Without these four things I can do nothing.

Herman: This year’s hard on a lot of people. What makes you happy or hopeful in rough times? Any advice for people?

Lay: 2020 was terrible. But we have to trust tomorrow will be good. We have a very good tomorrow, a good future. So don’t lose confidence, don’t lose happiness. Don’t forget your dreams. Chase your dreams and be happy. And spend time with your family. If you want, you can get anything.

This interview was conducted in English and Mandarin, and edited for clarity.

source: Tamar Herman @ Forbes

[dailyexo]

[INTERVIEW] Lay - 200915 Forbes: “Lay Zhang Is Aiming To Bring Chinese Music To The World”

"It’s been a few years now since Lay Zhang (also known as Zhang Yixing) released his debut EP Lose Control in 2016. Already a prominent star throughout Asia after debuting as part of K-pop boy band EXO back in 2012 and becoming a prominent television personality in China, Zhang – who is usually known mononymously as LAY – started down a path that year that would turn him into one of the biggest musical players in Asia less than half a decade later: in 2018, he broke onto the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart with his album Namanana, and this year he ranked No. 5 on Forbes China’s Celebrity 100 ranking.

This year, Lay dropped the duality of his Lit LP, split between two parts that arrived in June and July. A multifaceted release that spends its length blending modern musical styles with traditionally Chinese performance elements, Lay’s latest puts the emphasis on his roots. It extensively draws from classical styles and storytelling influences as he attempts to bring China to the world, as he says in the single “Lit” and relays through that song’s highly cinematic music video that sees Lay as a warrior facing down enemies amid a grandiose historic setting, inspired by the legendary general Xiang Yu.

The title track, and the album as a whole, is Lay’s attempt at expressing what he calls “M-pop,” or mixed Mandarin pop music, a genre he’s spearheading with the aim of bringing Chinese culture to global – primarily western – music listeners. Coming at a time when the world is more divided than ever, and China and the U.S.’s trade war continues, it may seem like a lofty aim. But Lay, although he shies away from discussing political ramifications on culture during a conversation with Forbes, has hope that bringing multi-cultural influences together will create greater understandings between one another and different cultures, as long as we take the time to listen to one another. Or, in his case, M-pop.

Tamar Herman: You released the long version of Lit in July, and saw much love for its blending of traditionally Chinese and modern musical elements. What was the inspiration overall for this album?

Lay: I just want to share Chinese culture, so I’m trying my best. Because I’m Chinese and I learn a lot from China, I think our country has a lot of good culture and good traditional instruments that maybe people don’t know. I want to promote that part, and let people know the very dope Chinese culture.

The sound of [the word] “lit” is very close to the Chinese word for “lotus.” I want people to know they can become what they want to be, no matter where they started, like a lotus flower that begins in the root and become beautiful flowers. I was also inspired by the cycle of life and wanted to have a Chinese perspective on it, so the first part of the album is more about the past and [tells] Chinese stories, using more traditional instruments. The second part, about the present and the things we deal with now, has more modern sounds and I worked with great producers like Scott [Storch] and Murda Beatz. Learning [and working with them] so I can mix different cultures on one track, for me it’s amazing work.

Herman: You released an epic music video for “Lit” as the album’s first lead track, and you’re back again on Sept. 14 with a remix of “Boom” by Dutch-Moroccan DJ R3hab, which you previously released as a single. What about these two songs make them your perfect pairing for listeners to get drawn into your Lit album?

Lay: For “Boom,” I want everyone just to jump and forget. This year is really terrible, right? I want people to forget the bad things and ignore the bad things. Just make happy vibes themselves.

For the second half of the album, my original intention was to have “Changsha” to be the single. However, during the course of the release cycle, “Boom” was selected instead because it really represented a little more what’s relevant to this current climate that covid has brought to the world. I wanted to focus more on that. I want everyone just to jump and forget. Putting aside the negativity of this year and focusing on positivity.

Herman: How did your creative process differ between Lit and prior releases?

Lay: If I play a video game, my level just goes up and up, right? So I want every year to go to the next level, ever year get better.

Herman: What type of video game character would you like to be?

I’m a warrior. If I can have the opportunity to go to another country, I’ll join the battle with [krumping originator] Tight Eyez (Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis).

Herman: Speaking of... I asked fans if they had any questions on Twitter. And while there were many great suggestions, I was surprised by how many wanted to know about your love of krumping. What about this form of dance is appealing to you and made you want to highlight it through “Lit”?

Lay: “Lit” has a very slow tempo. I just found jazz, hip-hop, etc. choreo didn’t match this song. Krump matched this song, so I tried to learn the [style]. In the beginning, it was very hard to do. I couldn’t copy the teacher, the motion, the action. I wanted to know why. The teacher was like, “You have to spend time in this kind of dance, then you can change.” I tried very hard to practice the feeling and vibe. I took maybe three months, and I’m just the beginning of krumping like a teenager. Level three in a game, maybe.

Herman: In “Lit” you say you are taking China to the world, and you’ve been talking a lot recently about how you’d like to spearhead M-Pop’s growth internationally. What do you hope to achieve?

Lay: I think Mandarin can mix with other countries’ languages to become one song, so that everyone can feel a Chinese vibe whether it’s English, French, Korean. It does not matter, I just want to mix a lot of languages, to create one track or music. If people can guess what English [songs] are talking about, they can guess what Chinese [songs] are talking about. It’s very easy to understand songs. The influence that I want to have isn’t about ranks or charts, but spreading Chinese culture to the world.

Herman: Typically, Chinese popular music is known in English as “C-pop,” with variant categories like Cantopop and Mandopop. Why do you feel it’s time to reframe the conversation as “M-pop”?

Lay: Because I think we need to mix something. It’s a global world. Also, I want music arrangements to have Chinese traditional instruments and other countries’ [instruments] put together. Traditional Chinese instruments, it’s better to use one style of instrument itself not with others. It’s a very unique sound, but you can [blend it with others] to make a new vibe.

Herman: You’ve been a top star in both the K-pop and Chinese music industries. K-pop’s having a moment in the west right now, how do you feel about M-pop’s potential?

Lay: Everybody, even me with “Namanana,” we just mix the languages, English with Chinese. But it’s basic, right? I think now M-pop has to change rules. From Lit, I saw the potential that we can reframe M-pop to another level. Let people know that it’s not just language mixing but culture mixing, instrument mixing, genre mixing. Letting people know that we have distinct instruments and unique sounds in China. I think there’s a potential to take M-pop to another level. I want to tell people, “This is Chinese music.”

Herman: You’ve been performing for many years now. How do you feel your approach to your artistry and performances have changed overtime? What have you realized is important to your craft?

Lay: For me, first of all, I think it’s all about music. If I can’t find the right music, I can’t make the performances very dope. Secondly, I think practice is very important. Practice is important if you want to make an amazing, perfect stage. So you have to spend the time practicing dancing and singing. Thirdly, I really respect my staff. Because we have these guys, they can make the stages, lights, speakers, and things for performers. Also, fans. Fans are very important. Without these four things I can do nothing.

Herman: This year’s hard on a lot of people. What makes you happy or hopeful in rough times? Any advice for people?

Lay: 2020 was terrible. But we have to trust tomorrow will be good. We have a very good tomorrow, a good future. So don’t lose confidence, don’t lose happiness. Don’t forget your dreams. Chase your dreams and be happy. And spend time with your family. If you want, you can get anything."

Credit: Forbes.

[myfriendpokey]

clearance sale

clearing out some of my backlog of opinions before the new year so i can start anew. in this post I have accumulated some writing scraps on the only three topics: 1. finance 2. mystery 3. location

FINANCE

i enjoyed these recent-ish posts against the idea of indie sustainability, although as someone who already works a day job i always feel a bit ambivalent about the advice to just work a day job to pay for this stuff - - like yes, absolutely, do it, BUT sell your shit too in the knowledge that the type of precarity we associate w/ creative work is already in the process of being implemented everywhere else as well (or has already been - zero hour contracts, sub-living wages etc). like i am fortunate to still have a day job which pays a living wage and leaves me time to work on my own things on the side - but this feels like an anachronism rather than an inevitability right now.. maybe my unsustainable games will help keep me afloat when my job gets automated and i have to go work in an amazon warehouse, unsustainable games for an unsustainable job, ha ha ha. video games are an exploitative bubble but so is the rest of "the market".

it is true that this is a political problem rather than one in the narrow remit of things that can be fixed with the right 10-point sales plan- -  nevertheless i think the issue of trying to make even small money off these things will remain kind of pressing as, in turn, regular employment comes more and more to resemble irregularly compensated hobbyist labour.

anyway one point i found really interesting, which i think all the above posts kind of grapple with - - the idea that it's not necessarily more "realistic" to aim at selling 1000 copies rather than 100,000. i think while we make fun of the aspiring millionaires a lot of people have just been banking on the idea of a fertile middle ground between the two extremes of tiny and ludicrous amounts of sales, between boom and bust. i'm sure there are still people working in that space but it seems like it's shrinking.

one question brendan keogh asks in his piece is "why should game makers be any different  [from the norm of artists, musicians etc not really making any money]?" i think this can actually be answered a little - because hobbyist game development sort of exploded in tandem with the internet itself becoming more naturalized within everyday life, because the economic basis for indie games was always centered around the internet, which means people working in indie games were always in the vicinity of the massive, startling movements of capital that the internet rendered more visible and immediate. no more were the weird vicissitudes of the market hidden behind closed doors, in boardrooms or stock quotations - now you could log onto any site and see just bewildering amounts of money suddenly funnel into the pockets of this or that individual in real time, frequently to their own surprise as well. and i think this connected to something more general - a sort of ambient awareness of financialization, the way "the financial sector" cannibalized things like industry, the greater visibility of capital not as something embedded in some specific product or set of individual practices but as a kind of weird free-floating aura arbitrarily descending or departing. enormous reservesof "general" wealth became more visible just as the benefits and stability of waged employment became yet more desolate and i think you need to see the draw of one in part as a consequence of the other. 

gacha-capitalism, permanent artificial scarcity coupled with the vague, insistent prospect of fantastic gains, as long as you keep playing. which is a rhythm already enshrined in many areas of working life - broke college students and unpaid graduates hustling for eventual employment, waged workers grinding through until  retirement. but it's one the enhanced immediacy and swiftness of capital on the internet intensified and extended. fabulous payouts can strike anyone at any time, in exchange for slowly bleeding out the prospect of any other kind of livelihood. much like the austerity following the financial crash which levelled so many basic social services for no particular purpose other than the hope that doing so for long enough would please the gods of prosperity to start tossing money around again. all dues, no pay.

i do think it's worth being cynical about the efforts to domesticate this process, building a fair and sustainable biome within capitalism, by using the tools of that same capitalism etc.  but if the format can't be seperated from the wider world then that's something which swings both ways. for me the most interesting critical work around vgames right now is in the effort to move outside of the constant, numbing boom-and-bust cycles of capital, the idiot repetition of exhilaration and depression and exhilaration and it'll all be okay as long as we can hold out one more cycle, particularly when that's a rhythm which has been central to the development of the format from the beginning. i think anyone involved with developing videogames has probably seen multiple generations of cool shit emerge, get abruptly killed off and written out of history in accordance with market diktats, and then replaced with a new wave of cool shit whenever the investors shift gears into "expansion" mode again. a mode of thinking about and preserving what people do that stands in opposition to this is something i can easily imagine being more generally useful in the culture, as ever more areas of life and culture start becoming subject to the same questions.

MYSTERY

there's a mystery in depth and a mystery in shallowness. with depth the habitual glance of recognition goes out and falls through - you can place roughly where something is in relation to the world, but not what it's doing, not where it goes. as a presence it seems to require a new mode of attention to be recognized, which i guess is why it sometimes makes me uneasy - that challenge, the way that challenge can be moralized. are you a bad enough dude to engage with art?? if there are 100 black obelisks in a field which one do you decide to look at? and will it really turn out to be deep, or just dense?

videogames can feel like depth-worship, like the embodiment of an essentially cthonic system of values. how deep did you go and what did you see there? did  you find the gold bars in pac-man? (www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spies.cgi?action=url&type=info&page=pmgoldbar.info.txt) did you see the secret ending? how far did you get into the game mechanics, into the lore? this marks the top 10 deepest players on this game. surpass  them... if you dare. an ethos of diligent attention, hierarchial levels of  understanding and initiate-dom, a sub-culture. and at best a maguslike  dedication to altered states of consciousness that i can respect, an interest in shifting through mangled pieces of debris in search of secret mysteries. at worst the authority cults and tests of true belonging that spring up around those mysteries, whose value is in being hidden and whose guarantee is in the strenuous effort with which they must be located. paranoia about true spiritual meanings being plundered by opportunistic interlopers. stay out. get good.

the videogame has the basic opacity of the computer system and the act of engaging with this curious abyss is allegorized into dungeons, castles, mazes. trapdoors and secret corridors. one pleasure in looking up older games for me is in seeing them recognize and learn how to thematize this basic sense of mystery. in bubble bobble the obscure scoring mechanics and secret endings are cheekily perverse, arcade challenge by another means - another system to game. in king's quest there's something like a crossfertilization between the strange causal voids of the fairy tale and the adventure game: "Exit the gingerbread house and go east and east. There is a large walnut tree here. Take walnut and then open walnut to discover a gold nut. Head east and take bowl . Look bowl  to see the words “fill” at the bottom. Fill and the bowl will fill up with a delicious stew." the wizardry games took the connection between mysterious game systems and occult knowledge much further - the "true" ending of wizardry iv means finding a secret chamber and answering a series of riddles based on your knowledge of the kaballah (or at least, kaballah-derived tarot interpretations).

it's easy to moralize depth - lotus eaters, magic islands. you wander through a strange land and then return to find it's 5 hours later and you forgot to eat. there's something creepy to me about depth on an industrial scale, about building huge tunnels with massive teams on forced overtime, and then a team of professional tunnel reviewers cautiously start descending on ropes and come back every so often and say, well, 20 hours in and it all looks ok, and meanwhile everybody else is jumping en masse. maybe that's more of an issue with consumer culture in general. but sometimes it feels like a way to avoid dealing with certain inherent limitations of that culture, or even limitations of art in general, by projecting those limits out to the end of ever-deeper tunnels that fewer and fewer people will ever see, the rest of them straggling back, exhausted, getting jobs. well, i can't tell you if red dead 2 is good or not. i only got 60 hours in, and i never even found all the falcons.

if the mystery of depth is having too much space for speculation to operate coherently within, the mystery of shallowness is having not enough space for speculation to operate at all: something is too manifestly there, limited, closed-off, it's hard to push it away to get some metaphorical breathing room. 

i feel this way sometimes reading writers like tove jansson, flannery o'connor - SOMETHING happened, the stories are short and clear and describe some definite event without too much uncertainty, they even have "broader themes" raised - but somehow the themes feel embarrassingly outsize for the stories, and the stories remain too clearly defined to sink back into the murk of a generalized moral or experience. they feel like moral stories when you can't work out what the moral might be.

robbe-grillet on raymond roussel: "Now these chains of elucidations,  extraordinarily precise, ingenious, and farfetched, appear so derisory, so disappointing, that it is as if the mystery remained intact. But it  is henceforth a mystery that has been washed, emptied out, that has become  unnameable. The opacity no longer hides anything. One has the impression of  having found a locked drawer, then a key; and this key opens the drawer impeccably... and the drawer is empty."

there's a famous shallowness to videogames as well that's most often caught by people outside the culture - when you see the fake videogames in a comicbook, or on tv, and they're named something like "washing machine simulator 3000" or "municipal tax assailants". and part of this also stems from the computer, the history of the computer as it insinuated its way into everyday life, as a mysteriously elaborate and convoluted way of doing just impossibly banal things, like balancing chequebooks or printing text. the stubborn thingliness of not-quite-functional machines, the way the thingliness glosses and corrodes their own internal fantasies, mirrors of the basic weirdness that is human consciousness as a material fact within the world. 

with my friend i used to joke  about "e3" just being the dumpster behind an abandoned gamestop - all those needy longform experiences frozen into evocative trinkets. find a nonfunctional disk copy of mario odyssey and it gives you all the same delight as playing mario odyssey, only without having to. i think there's something beautiful about that flatness, that directionless object-hostility, the rejection of the grandoise hero's journey fantasies that it implies – as well as something baleful, a rejection of consciousess in general, the idea that it could take you anywhere not inside your own head.

LOCATION

why are there so many videogames about going outside? every time i've played a videogame it's been inside a room, usually a dark one, mostly while still wearing my pajamas. for me it is an internal activity. but not only do all these games take place in fields and plains, they always talk about the wonders of going on a voyage, the beauty of the great outdoors, the superiority of the wandering main characters to the slugs and layabouts who sit at home all day.... it's weird to me, i demand we move past these cloying pseudo-critiques. raymond williams once pointed out that the first pastoral was written from the perspective of a rentier daydreaming of cashing out and moving to a country home. i demand more games with the courage of their implict convictions and that if they require you to sit motionless indoors  for hours they should explicitly establish and argue for a value system in which this is the best possible thing that you can do. imagine if movies were all set in dark chambers full of people sitting down - i think i can say they would be much less insipid as an artform. "all of man's problems stem from an inability to stay in his room".

(images: Gakken No O Benkyou Soft Kazu Suuji, Legend of Legaia, a Chinese bootleg cart, and ...Iru!)

[stantomientra-blog]

BlackBerry Curve 8900 Javelin Unlocked Phone Review

This phone is a stunning, stylish finish. This is the lowest Blackberry phone available in the market. The phone not only comes with a stylish titanium but also comes with many communication and location features. It has a Wi-Fi system that can help both voice and data functions. The GPS system is necessary if you want to easily identify a place that is in your interests.

The phone has all the great communication and connectivity features that are blackberry trademarks. You have access to the Blackberry Internet service. It will allow you to safely navigate without taking your laptop. The phone also includes the best messaging solution like MMS, IMS and SMS. It also includes 3.2 MP cameras which feature photo stability, zooming, flash recording and interesting video playback. In addition, the phone has a micro SD slot that increases phone storage capacity. In addition to card slots, the phone has 256 MB own storage capacity. You can also use the feature of the Bluetooth and play your music exquisitely. Bluetooth makes music and shape digital players easy to simplify easily.

This phone can be used on a GSM network provider and enables quad band connectivity and EDGE data connectivity. This phone is different from traditional phone types because it does not come with a SIM card. You need to get a SIM card from your service provider.

Email technology is advanced and you will receive emails even though you are connected to the Internet. The phone receiving a new email will notify you. This is because you are consistently connected to the wireless network. Your phone does not support just text format documents. It supports Adobe formats, file formats and other formats like Microsoft Office. Coral Drawing feature is also available and it allows you to easily edit documents and graphics.

You can easily browse the web because the phone allows viewing HTML pages and subscribes RSS feeds and blogs. So you can stay up to date on the latest news in any industry in which you are interested.

There are also solutions to phone companies and businesses. For example, e-mail and corporate messaging capabilities allow you to access about ten jobs or personal emails. The enterprise server is effective that allows you to get better security in many enterprise solutions, such as Lotus and Microsoft Exchange.

[fueledbysprite]

Up Too Late

@lotus-duckies came up with this genius idea, and I, of course, went all-out and turned it into literal crack. Enjoy!

“I’m never coloring another leaf again,” Marinette announced, halfway through shading another one of the countless spring buds that decorated the piece of board. “If it wasn’t for the fact that this is Mylene’s first performance live, on-stage, I’d probably have just given up and gotten Manon and Alya’s little sisters to color the rest in.” She sighed, putting down the pencil and massaging her wrist.

“Yeah, well, we did promise we’d help,” Nathaniel reminded her from his place near the roots. “And trees take a lot of detail; you can’t just fill them in, you have to shade them.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re only drawing the outline. Meanwhile I’m the one tiring my arms out making sure every shadow is at the right angle,” she grumbled. “Why is this taking so long?!”

“Good question,” the redhead agreed. “Actually, what time is it, even? We’ve been working for, what, hours?”

Marinette clicked on her phone and the digits 21:52 filled the illuminated screen.

“Nine o’clock?!” she screeched.

“Have we really been doing this for that long?” Nathaniel asked, looking up at her in shock.

“Ughhh, you know what? Screw this tonight, we’ll do more tomorrow. It is way too late to be doing this,” Marinette decided, putting her pencil down with finality.

Nathaniel put his things away too, yawning and stretching his arms.

“It’s too late to go home, now, though,” he pointed out.

“Don’t worry, you can just stay over for the night,” Marinette assured him. He stopped and blinked at her for a few moments.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, shaking his head.

“A sleepover, silly!” she giggled, tossing a pillow at his head. “Don’t tell me that working this long has tired out your basic comprehension skills.”

“Right, well, see, I don’t have my clothes, and I’m sure your parents wouldn’t want to be bothered with-”

“Relax. They’ll be fine, Alya’s slept over lots of times when we were working on projects that took too long.”

“Yeah, but that’s Alya-”

“So? Same thing; now help me put this stuff away. I think I’ll get sick if I look at another blank leaf tonight.”

Nathaniel sighed and assisted her in moving the board against the wall so they could get back to it later, and collecting all the pencil crayons from their sprawled places.

“I don’t have my pajamas, though...” he mentioned, leaning under the chaise to pick up a sky blue.

“That’s fine, you can just wear some of my clothes,” Marinette said. “I’m sure they’d fit you. I hope you don’t mind that they’re all pink.”

“No, it’s fine,” he agreed, standing up and dusting off his pants. Marinette stood up too, and went to her closet to find him some clothes. He took them and disappeared into the bathroom to change.

A moment later, he came back out in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, both a light shade of pink that mirrored the light blush on his cheeks.

“You look fine!” Marinette smiled encouragingly.

“At least nobody else can see me like this,” he mumbled quietly. “Now what?”

“Hm..” Marinette thought. “I’m not really feeling like sleeping just yet. Maybe we could play a video game,” she suggested.

“Mm, I’ll pass,” Nathaniel replied. “You’d beat me on every level no sweat.”

“I’m sure you’re not bad,” she assured him.

“Yeah? You obviously haven’t seen me, then. I can barely figure the controls out, let alone use them.”

“Your choice,” she shrugged. “Hm, how about board games then. “Why don’t we play Monopoly, but it’s a race to see who can go bankrupt first.”

“Sure, why not?” he agreed, and so, a few minutes later, they sat before a board set-up and ready to play.

***

“What, no! That’s not fair! You landed on my house on purpose, dang it! At this rate I’ll have so much money I could buy the whole board and still have cash left over,” Marinette complained. Meanwhile, Nathaniel was rather smugly diminishing his cash stock to a few 5M bills.

“Well, it’s your fault for buying houses instead of hotels because you make less profit off of them,” he said.

“Well you don’t have to be so conceited about it,” Marinette objected, picking up her playing piece and tossing it at him playfully.

He responded by adding five extra bills to her stack. She raised an eyebrow.

“Dang it, I knew the game was rigged! I should have known you would cheat when I made you the banker!” she glared, picking up the entire game board and folding it in half. All the cards and pieces and houses fell to the floor.

“Whoa, sore loser much?” Nathaniel asked her, eyes widening. “I didn’t realize you’d take it so personally!”

“And I didn’t realize you’d play so dirty, so this game is void,” she replied, sticking out her tongue. He rolled his eyes, but they both knew that neither of them were particularly serious.

“Whatever, let’s just play something else. Monopoly takes forever to win, anyways,” the redhead suggested.

“Hm, how about ‘Never Have I Ever’?”

Nathaniel paled slightly.

“Don’t worry, there won’t be anything super personal. If you don’t want to answer, it’s okay,” Marinette quickly assured him.

“O-okay, sure,” he shrugged.

“Alright, then, I’ll start. Hmm, never have I ever...watched a horror movie alone at night,” she finally decided.

“That makes two of us,” he shuddered. “I can barely stand horror movies even if I’m not alone in broad daylight.”

“Would you watch one if I was with you?”

“Hmm...probably not.”

Marinette pouted.

“And what if I was close enough that I could hug you during the scary parts?”

Nathaniel thought it over.

“Mm…...maybe...” he relented. “Not this late at night, though,” he added quickly.

“Works for me,” she said. “Your turn.”

“Let me think, uh….never have I ever dreamt of kissing a marshmallow,” he finally came up with.

Marinette choked on air.

“What kind of confession is that?!” she asked.

“Well, it’s true. Rose told me that she had a dream once where she had to pick between marrying a unicorn or a marshmallow.” he shrugged. “Couldn’t think of anything else.”

“Well, uh, neither have I...” Marinette answered. “Or any kind of edible for that matter.”

The redhead chuckled.

“Well I did dream about blueberries once, but that was a long time ago,” he admitted.

“That’s so weird,” Marinette giggled, oblivious to the odd look he sent her way.

He shrugged.

“I dream weird things sometimes...” he told her. “What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?”

Marinette frowned, thinking.

“Well, I don’t usually manage to dream most nights because I end up staying up super late doing homework or sewing or something, but, uh...the weirdest dream I had? I think this one time I had a dream where Chat Noir was telling me he was in love with me and then he started chasing me and I was running away, but then he stopped and turned into Adrien and I felt so bad because why on Earth would I ever run away from Adrien?” she sighed dreamily. “But anyways, I was so confused and scared that he wouldn’t like me anymore that I woke up, and thank goodness it was only a dream...” she froze, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“I said too much, didn’t I?” she asked embarrassedly, lowering her hand.

Nathaniel laughed lightly.

“It’s okay, I already knew,” he confessed. When she looked confused, he went on.

“I mean, not to sound creepy or anything, but since no one usually talks to me, I just end up watching people. You seem kind of awkward around him, so I figured...” he trailed off.

“Am I that obvious?” she asked softly.

“No no no, not at all!” he assured her quickly. “I’m pretty sure I’m like the only one. Adrien’s too oblivious to notice anything, and I wouldn’t tell anyone,” he promised.

“It probably doesn’t even matter, anyways,” she sighed sadly. “He’s never going to see me the way...”

“Don’t say that, Marinette, he’ll have to figure it out some way or other. Once he discovers how lucky he really is, there’s no way he could turn you down!”

Marinette looked up.

“You really think?”

“I know for a fact. You’re an amazing person, he just hasn’t realized just how amazing you really are yet,” he said.

“That’s so sweet of you, Nathaniel,” the bluenette told him.

“Anytime,” he smiled. For once he found himself able to smile at her genuinely, and, despite the little pain that still throbbed in his chest, he realized that if he could have her even as a friend, that would be good enough for him.

“Okay, enough of this. I wanna do something,” Marinette decided suddenly, a mischevious glint in her eyes.

“O-kay...?” Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “Any reason for that not-at-all suspicious expression on your face right now?”

“Oh you’ll see,” she grinned evilly, producing her cell phone out of thin air. “We’re going to have some fun.”

“Um..okay...but I don’t know if this is a good ide-”

“Shush,” she cut him off with a finger on his lips as she dialled a number and waited for someone to pick up.

“At least dial *67 first!” he said, staring at the screen.

“Oh? Why?” she asked.

“The caller ID shows up otherwise!” he screeched. “Have you never prank-called before?!”

Marinette blinked.

“You’ve prank-called before?” she asked disbelievingly. “I’d never have imagined you...but anyways, I’m using an internet calling service so it’ll just show up as an unavailable number,” she explained.

“Okay, phew,” he sighed in relief. “Let’s just hope we don’t get caught. Don’t do anything extreme.”

“Relax, I got this.”

Marinette hummed softly until the person on the other end finally picked up. Nathaniel moved closer to hear what they were saying, and she put the call on speaker.

“Chloe Bourgeois; who dares to disturb me at this time of the night?!” Marinette flinched and held the phone away from their faces, stifling a giggle all the same.

“You got the stuff?” Marinette spoke, voice ridiculously exaggerated since she had pinched her nose to disguise it. She had apparently been attempting some variation of a gangster voice, but was failing miserably at it. “I’ll be waiting in the back alley. Be there at midnight, or else.”

“Who the hell is this? Are you threatening me? Oh, just you wait until my father hears about this. You’ll be sorry you ever-”

Marinette calmly cut the line. Nathaniel sighed.

“You are honestly such an amateur,” he told her, shaking his head. She rolled her eyes.

“It wasn’t that bad,” she said. “It’s not like you could do any better.”

“Oh, really?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “Try me.”

Marinette looked at him, surprised.

“Fine,” she decided. “Show me what you got.”

“Oh I will,” he assured her. “You can pick the number, by the way.”

“I’ll do that,” she murmured, scanning the local directory and finally choosing one at random. She passed him the phone once it had started dialling.

“Allo?”

The voice sounded like it belonged to a high school girl. Marinette wondered if Nathaniel would be able to handle this one, but one look at his remarkably relaxed posture and the easy smile on his face told her he’d be just fine. What?

“Hey babe, I was wondering when I’d get to hear that sweet, sweet voice of yours again...” Nathaniel’s voice took on a completely unprecedented smoothness, and Marinette was left staring in surprise. ...wHAT???

“I’m sorry, who is this?” the girl on the other end sounded very confused and a bit embarrassed, from what Marinette could tell.

“It doesn’t matter,” he whispered, voice low and even smoother than it was before. “All that matters is me and you tonight.”

Marinette’s brain was short-circuiting; what the hell happened to the shy, sweet guy who was sitting there just a few minutes ago???

“Oh, um, okay? Er, what do want to do, then?” Marinette very much pitied the flustered receiver.

“That’s really up to you, honey. What do you wanna do tonight?”

“Well, uh, my parents aren’t home, do you maybe wanna…?”

Nathaniel suddenly choked on air, dropping the phone. Marinette hurried to pick it up before it hit the floor, quickly closing the call while Nathaniel launched into a coughing fit.

“Well that backfired,” the aspiring fashion designer remarked.

“She must have been a high schooler,” the redhead managed between coughs. “I wasn’t expecting her to go that far!”

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle.

“We’re lucky she didn’t go to Françoise Dupont, at least,” she said. “I never knew you could talk like that.”

“I don’t usually,” he admitted. “But Alix loves prank calls and I basically ended up practicing in anonymity. I also watch a lot of movies, so there’s that...”

“Hmm..that gives me another idea...” Marinette said slowly.

“Do share.”

“I wonder if you could pull the same thing off with someone who we actually know in real life...” she said, half to herself. Nathaniel paled.

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.”

***

“How many times are we going to have to pause this?” Nino asked, exasperated, at the sixth time the phone must have rung this evening alone. “Your sisters wouldn’t leave us alone for two hours, and now that they’re asleep, we get another phone call every five minutes.”

“I hope it isn’t Chloe this time. Why does she think you’re trying to deal drugs with her?”

Nino shrugged.

“Beats me. Just answer it so we can get on with the movie already.”

“It’s from Marinette,” Alya frowned, tapping the screen.

They were met with a high scream that would’ve woken Alya’s sisters if her phone had been on speaker.

“Marinette?! What happened?” she asked worriedly. No response. The brunette anxiously held the phone closer to her ear to pick up some kind of hint.

“AHHHHHHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...”

“Marinette? What the heck is going on-”

“I’m not letting go until you say it!”

“Nathaniel?! The heck are you doing at-”

“Ah-ah-ah-ahahahahahah-I-can’t-I just-ahhhhahahahah...”

“...are you okay?”

“Say it...”

“NOOOOO-ahahahahahahhhh..”

Nino looked up at Alya, expressing mirroring hers.

‘What the actual hell is going on?’ he mouthed at her. She shook her head in bafflement.

“Say my name and I’ll let you go..”

“Na-agh-ahah-stop-nath-I-ohmi-ahahaha-NATHANI-AHAHAHAHAHAH”

“Come on, say it…..”

“Ahhhahahahah-nath-aha-natha-ack-NATHANIEL-aghh-now let me GO, goddammit!”

Alya turned to her boyfriend, wide-eyed.

“You don’t think they’re...”

“But from what it sounds like they’re doing...” He shook his head quickly.

“No. it can’t be.”

“But then again...” she gestured at the phone, which was currently transmitting sounds of rather heavy breathing. They both stared at it for a few long moments.

“You know what, I think I’d rather just continue the movie.”

“Yeah, definitely.”

***

“Aw, she hung up on us,” Nathaniel complained, moving so Marinette had space to catch her breath.

“Damn, Nathan, who knew you’d get so aggressive in a tickle fight?!” she said between pants. Her face was as red as his hair as this point.

“Need some water?”

She nodded vigorously and he poured her a glass from the jug on her vanity. When she’d finally gathered herself, she put the glass down and looked at him.

“I guess that’s enough for one night, yeah?”

“Mhmm...” he yawned. “Where are we sleeping?”

“I’m sure you can fit onto my chaise lounge,” she told him. “Unless you want the bed, but after what just happened on the phone, I think that might bring up some questionable stuff,” she noted.

“No kidding, I’ll take the chaise. I might be up for a little while later, though. I have trouble falling asleep, especially in unfamiliar places.”

Marinette nodded.

“I guess I’ll just keep you company until I fall asleep. I’m not really in a mood to get down to bed just yet, either.”

“You sure?” Nathaniel asked, glancing at her drooping eyelids and slouching posture.

“Mmmhm,” she responded in assurance.

“Yeah, no.”

“Mmmm..” she mumbled, resting her head against the chaise. They sat like that in silence for some time, before he spoke up.

“Marinette?”

She didn’t respond.

He shrugged and, with some effort, picked her up and lay her down on the chaise. Then he curled up beside the piece of furniture, and, before even realizing it, he, too, had fallen fast asleep.

[wallpapernifty]

You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy

In the backward 1940s and aboriginal 1950s, Europe was still disturbing to balance from the crippling after-effects of war. In Britain it is referred to as the “austerity period”, with aliment still rationed and in which “make do and mend” was actual abundant the adjustment of the day. The customer bang of the backward 1950s and 1960s was actual far in the future, and if you were a accouterments hacker your antecedent abstracts were bound to whatever you could acquisition from war surplus or whatever prewar clutter ability appear your way. This was a time in which the majority of adults had afresh alternate from war service, during which they had acquired activated abilities through the aliment of action that they approved an aperture for in peacetime.

One acreage that benefited from this abrupt beginning of adroitness was that of motor racing. Before the war it had been an absolute pursuit, with bespoke cars at acclaimed circuits like the banked clue at Brooklands, in Surrey. In a absorption of the added amusing changes that followed the war the motor racers of the post-war years came from humbler backgrounds, they raced bootleg specials bogus from blah prewar motors on wartime aerodrome ambit advance like the one at Silverstone which still hosts Blueprint One antagonism today.

A archetypal Austin Seven Special. Probably a lot shinier than my dad’s one. Barry Skeates [CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons.My ancestor raced an Austin-7-derived appropriate during this period. Too adolescent to accept been a combatant, in the aboriginal 1950s he was an engineering amateur at a ample barter manufacturer. He relates tales of home-made gasflowed manifolds for the sidevalve 750cc Austin engine, and of agrarian and crazy cam profiles congenital up with weld, afresh arena bottomward and hardened. Prewar Austins were abounding and cheap, so abounding such cartage were created.

Cars like the Austin 7 accepted to be beneath than acceptable as accelerated racers though: the aboriginal A-shaped anatomy and abeyance had been advised for the anchorage and speeds of the 1920s. The association of special car builders responded to this with their own anatomy designs, and from their ranks came both the roots of today’s Blueprint One and British motor antagonism industry, and the avant-garde kit car industry.

An aboriginal Lotus Seven. Thesupermat [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.One name from that aeon which embodies both Blueprint One and kit cars is Lotus. Its founder, [Colin Chapman], produced a assumption of antagonism specials from the backward 1940s through to the aboriginal 1950s, and the aggregation eventually became a architect of assembly sports cars which were additionally awash as kits. Today, Lotus is a 21st-century architect based in Norfolk and authoritative cars at the beginning of technology, but aback afresh they were article of a cartel operation in a North London workshop. My

You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy – lotus drawing easy | Encouraged to be able to the blog site, with this time period I am going to explain to you regarding keyword. And from now on, this can be the primary graphic:

How To Draw Lotus Step By Step – Easy Drawing – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Think about impression preceding? is actually which remarkable???. if you believe therefore, I’l t explain to you a few photograph once more underneath:

So, if you’d like to obtain all these great images regarding (You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy), click on save link to download the graphics in your laptop. They’re all set for obtain, if you appreciate and want to grab it, just click save symbol in the article, and it’ll be immediately down loaded in your notebook computer.} At last if you desire to find new and the recent picture related to (You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy), please follow us on google plus or bookmark this site, we attempt our best to offer you daily update with fresh and new pics. We do hope you enjoy keeping here. For many up-dates and latest news about (You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy) shots, please kindly follow us on twitter, path, Instagram and google plus, or you mark this page on book mark area, We attempt to offer you up-date periodically with all new and fresh graphics, love your surfing, and find the best for you.

Here you are at our website, contentabove (You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy) published .  Nowadays we’re delighted to announce we have discovered an awfullyinteresting topicto be reviewed, namely (You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy) Some people searching for information about(You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy) and certainly one of these is you, is not it?

Simple Lotus Flower Drawing Tattoo Tattoo ideas pinterest .. | lotus drawing easy

Free Lotus Drawing, Download Free Clip Art, Free Clip Art on .. | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw Lotus Flower.Step by step easy draw for children, kids, beginners | lotus drawing easy

How To Draw A Lotus Flower Easy Como dibujar una flor de loto – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to Teach Kids to Draw Using the Alphabet | Very easy drawing .. | lotus drawing easy

How To Draw Lotus: Easy Step-By-Step Guide – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw Lotus Flower | Flower drawing tutorials, Flower drawing – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to draw a LOTUS easy – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

Resultado de imagen de simple turned flower drawing | Dibujos .. | lotus drawing easy

How to draw a Lotus drawing for kids | Learn How to draw | Easy Step by step drawing for kids – lotus drawing easy | lotus drawing easy

How to Draw a Lotus Flower – Really Easy Drawing Tutorial .. | lotus drawing easy

The post You Should Experience Lotus Drawing Easy At Least Once In Your Lifetime And Here’s Why | Lotus Drawing Easy appeared first on Wallpaper Nifty.

from Wallpaper Nifty https://www.flowernifty.com/you-should-experience-lotus-drawing-easy-at-least-once-in-your-lifetime-and-heres-why-lotus-drawing-easy/

[livingcorner]

How to Create Your own Mini Garden@|how to make a mini garden@|https://www.wikihow.com/images/a/ad/Create-Your-own-Mini-Garden-Step-14.jpg@|21

Download Article

Download Article

[external_link_head]

Mini gardens have been growing in popularity among gardening enthusiasts who do not have the space or the means to have a full sized garden. Mini gardens are also a great arts and crafts project for kids who want to get into gardening. You can create a mini garden using some easy to find supplies and add in miniature accessories to make the mini garden your own.

Gathering Your Supplies Download Article

1

Find a suitable container or pot. You can house your mini garden in a variety of containers, from a glass bowl to a plastic pot to a terracotta planters pot. You should look for a container that has drain holes at the bottom so the water drains through the soil when you water your mini garden.[1]

Terracotta pots are ideal, as they often come with drainage holes and are good for holding potting soil. Look for a terracotta pot that will hold several small plants, as you want your container to be big enough to house your mini garden.

You may decide to repurpose a broken clay pot by using it for your mini garden, especially if it is only broken on one side. You can then prop the broken piece up and add it to your mini garden as a unique, fun feature.[2]

2

Get potting soil and small stones. You will need regular potting soil to lay down at the bottom of your container. You can find potting soil at your local plant nursery or in the gardening section of your local hardware store.[3]

You should also pick up small stones of various colors and textures to lay down in your garden as decoration.

If you are planning to a glass bowl to house your mini garden, you should get horticultural charcoal in addition to potting soil. The horticultural charcoal will help your plants grow better in the glass container. You can then lay down the horticultural charcoal and the stones at the bottom of your glass bowl or container.[4]

3

Select plants for your mini garden. When it comes to selecting plants for your garden, you should go for plants that will stay small and require very little trimming. You should also choose plants that are easy to grow in a small space and that will produce attractive blooms. Possible plants for your mini garden include:[5] [6]

Herbs like thyme, basil, rosemary, sage, lavender and oregano

Lemon-scented geraniums

Firecracker plants

Dwarf licorice

Marjoram

Miniature orchids and miniature ferns

Begonias

Spider plants

Moss and lichens

Winter greens

African violets

Putting in the Soil and the Plants Download Article

1

Put an even layer of potting soil in the terracotta pot. Start by rinsing and drying the container you are using for your mini garden. Fill the container with potting soil up to the rim. You can make the potting soil slightly higher on one side if you would like your plants to be visible from the side.[7]

[external_link offset=1]

Use a small knife or a small shovel to dig small holes for the roots of the plants. Space out the plants so they are not in one cluster in the pot.

You may also want to lay out the mini garden before you plant anything by noting where you are going to place your plants and your accessories. You can then make holes in the potting soil based on your design.

2

Add small stones first if you’re using a glass container. If you are using a glass container, you should lay a one-inch (2.5 centimeter) layer of small stones on the bottom of the container first. This will ensure your plants get enough nutrients in the glass container. It will also help your plants drain properly.[8]

Then, add a half-inch (1.3 centimeter) layer of horticultural charcoal. Finally, add in a three to four inch (+61404532026 centimeter) layer of potting soil.

3

Prepare the plants for the container. Once you have laid down the soil, you will need to prepare the plants. This will ensure they grow healthy and beautiful in your mini garden.[9]

Start by taking the plants out of their pots. Avoid touching or breaking the root ball. Then, use small a pair of garden shears to trim any damaged leaves off the plants.

4

Put in the plants. Place the plants in the prepared holes. Once the plants are in place, pat soil over the roots.[10]

Try to place taller plants in the back of the garden and shorter plants in front. You should try to have a variety of plants in each area so your garden showcases interesting patterns and colors.

If your container has a narrow opening, you can use a pair of chopsticks or the end of a long paintbrush to position your plants in the soil.

Water the plants after you are done.

Adding Miniature Accessories Download Article

1

Find miniature accessories. You can get creative by putting miniature accessories among the plants in your mini garden. Almost anything can be used as an accessory in your garden, as long as it is miniature in size.[11]

You may also decide to add miniature structures to your garden, like a miniature bridge, a miniature fence, or a miniature set of tables and chairs. Maybe you decide to add in miniature figures and create a garden scene, complete with miniature food items.[12]

If you are going for a more minimal mini garden, you may decide to add simple elements like marbles, beads, or decorative pieces of wood.

2

Decorate the garden with rocks and figurines. Once your plants have been added, you can decorate the garden with rocks and figurines. Try out a few different accessories next to your plants to see what might work best.[13]

You may decide to accessorize with simple items like decorative rocks, twigs, and colored stones or marbles. Get creative and make the garden appear colorful and fun.

3

Accessorize based on a theme. If you are going for a certain theme for your garden, you may add in accessories that fit the theme. Decorating based on a theme can make your garden feel cohesive and artistic.[14]

One popular theme for mini gardens is a fairy-garden theme, complete with mini benches, mini rocking chairs, mini painted eggs, and mini garden gnomes.

You may also go for a woodland garden look, complete with tree stumps, a mini wrought iron fence, and small fairy figurines.[15]

4

Add a stone path. You can also add in a stone pathway in your garden for a more permanent accessory. You can use small stones to create a pathway or a mixture of stones and marbles.[16]

Use a small shovel to draw lines in the soil to mark where the pathway is going to go in the garden. Then, lay down the stones to form a path. Keep the stones close together so they form a pathway.

Use stones of various colors or mix marbles with the stones to create a colorful pathway in your garden.

Caring for the Mini Garden Download Article

1

Keep the garden in indirect sunlight. Once you have completed your mini garden, you should place it outside or inside on a flat surface, like a table or the ground. Keep the garden in indirect sunlight so the plants still get some sun.[17] [18]

If you are keeping the mini garden by a window facing south, place a window shade or a lightweight curtain over the window. This will block out any direct sunlight and only allow indirect light to filter in.

South-facing windows with a shade or curtain may still provide too much light. You may decide to place the mini garden by an east or west-facing window, as this angle will provide enough indirect light for most of the year.

Avoid north-facing windows. North-facing windows usually do not get enough indirect sunlight year round to sustain plants.

2

Water the plants when the soil feels dry. You should always check the soil in the mini garden periodically to ensure it is not too dry. Keep the soil damp by running water through the pot once the soil feels dry around the roots of the plants.

[external_link offset=2]

Depending on the types of plants in your mini garden, you may have to water some plants more often than others. If there are any succulents in your mini garden, for example, they may not require as much watering as herbs or other plants in your garden. Make sure you follow the watering directions recommended on the label of the plant.

If you used a glass bowl for your plants, water slowly. Stop when you see water reach the stones at the bottom of the bowl.

3

Trim the plants, as needed. As your mini garden grows and thrives, the leaves of some of your plants may start to overcrowd your container. To keep them under control, you should trim the plants using small gardening shears.[19]

Community Q&A

Add New Question

Question

What plants can be planted in a miniature garden in India?

If you want a more floral garden, jasmine or hibiscus grow well in most natural soils in India. They’re easy to take care of and are very fragrant. Something more advanced, like a lotus or water lilies, will need to have a pond or pool of water nearby.

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Video .

By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.

Things You’ll Need

A container or pot

Potting soil

Small stones

Horticultural charcoal

Small plants

Garden accessories

About This Article

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 84,480 times.

Reader Success Stories

“This is so helpful! my room is decorated in colors, and friends that I invite over are inspired and want to do it…” more

Did this article help you?

[external_footer]

source https://livingcorner.com.au/how-to-create-your-own-mini-gardenhow-to-make-a-mini-gardenhttps-www-wikihow-com-images-a-ad-create-your-own-mini-garden-step-14-jpg21/

[radhaerangoli]

Lotus is the symbol of purity where Goddess Mahalakshmi lives 🌸 Simple and Easy rangoli design ❤️ For detailed video on how to make this rangoli, check out our YouTube channel!!!🙏💞🌹 Subscribe and support 🤗 . . . . . . . . #rangoli #easyrangolidesigns #muggulu #kolangal #kolam #easyrangoli #artistsoninstagram #art #artwork #mugguludesigns #kolamsoninsta #creativity #floorart #handart #streetart #indianrangoli #drawing #geometricart #freehand #love #spirituality #meditation #freehandrangoli #mindyoga #drawing #keepcalm #beautifulrangoli #howtodraw #positivity #lotus #padmam https://www.instagram.com/p/CMWBo2IhLGq/?igshid=zybea04c9ydb

[yeouulart]

Today tutorial is how to draw a lotus flower with oil pastel! SUBSCRIBE my channel here 👉 https://bit.ly/2V5OoOI ✔️ 🔮 NEW VIDEOS EVERY SATURDAY! 🎨  How to seal and protect paintings! CLICK HERE 👉  https://youtu.be/iVfjIq8_XYg✔️

[althea-ib-cas]

6th May 2020

During quarantine period I was compelled to do an art piece based on a still from one of my favourite Asian dramas: The Untamed. It's not complete as the lotus don't have their stems yet and in my art style I don't really draw faces.

What I found easy:

Surprisingly, I was able to transpose the scale of the photo well, meaning that from a picture on my phone I scaled it up onto the canvas with little to no problem

I was also able to get the details similar to what is shown in the photo. For example, the headpiece on the figure with white robes.

What I found difficult:

The background was an absolute pain. No matter how many times I redid it, I could never get the gradient effect right. I've opted for what you can see on the painting now, but knowing it's not the best I've done, I'm not completely satisfied with it.

What I could do to improve:

I've watched a lot of art videos since starting this piece only to realise that one of my mistakes was not painting the entire canvas white. Apparently that helps blend the paints more. Another mistake is not starting with the background first and then adding the middle bit later. That would've improved my background but would also get rid of the streakiness from when I tried to salvage it.