#obsessed with the robot voice effect and the meaning it implies when we get to the chorus

[bwops]

give me a call if you ever get lonely i'll be like one your girls or your homies

[shipburner]

Fallout: Atlantis

A Fallout game by somebody who has never played Fallout and is just now reading the wikis

So, I took @tyrantisterror‘s ��Your Own Personal Fallout” post way, way too seriously for someone with no connection to the games.

Name and Location of The Wasteland: the Tidewater Expanse (the Chesapeake Bay plus several feet of sea level rise). Distinct from the Capital Wasteland due to the 30 miles and water barrier separating them.

Time Period: the more I try to learn about the Fallout timeline the more my head hurts

Primary Slice of Americana: Kitschy tourist traps, the way some states have urban and rural areas abutting each other so closely (the Tidewater Expanse transitions very quickly from settlement to farmland/waterways/waste), a soupcon of Moby Dick-esque whaling yarns

Central Thematic Conflict: Identity: who are you, in a world of chaos and change? What do you choose to center yourself around? Do you find solace in ideals? In aesthetics? In challenges? People have different answers to that question.

PC’s Title: The Reporter

PC’s Motive for Exploring the Wasteland: You're a newspaper with a staff of one, but by gum are you going to make your paper the best ever! You travel around the Tidewater Expanse looking for people's stories, interviewing them and possibly doing journalistically unethical things by involving yourself in their stories.

Bestiary

Recurring Creatures and Robots: ‘Cause it’s not Fallout without radroaches, Deathclaws, and ghouls

Humanoid:

Ghouls

Super Mutants: Some dipshits tried to keep FEV at the Aberdeen Proving Ground and made super mutants again, proving that we never learn from our fucking mistakes.

Synths

Mammalian:

Brahmins, which curiously have red-and-white or black-and-orange patches

Dogs

Radstags and yao guai, which likewise have the Maryland flag pattern

Reptilian:

Gulpers, which are human-sized, fast, brightly colored, and hide in the undergrowth/under logs and buildings. They're referred to as burners, since some of them can breathe fire.

Lakelurks/mirelurk kings, evolved diamondback terrapins. Referred to as landlurks, they can use tools, have language, and are treated as people in the Tidewater Expanse, often retrieving things from the drowned cities.

Pinkclaws, deathclaws whose shrimp-rich diet has made their keratinous structures bright pink. Their horns have fused into head-crests that vaguely resemble beehive hairdos. They are found exclusively as the battle mounts of the Hons.

Arthropod:

Bloatflies

Bloodbugs

Giant ants

Giant mantises

Mirelurks (referred to as baylurks), since they're canonically blue and horseshoe crabs.

Radroaches

Wanamingos, using @bogleech​'s flea-wanamingo idea.

Robots:

Eyebots

Mr. Handys/Gutsys/Nannys

Assaultrons, protectrons, sentrybots (found at the Aberdeen Proving Ground)

New Creatures and Robots:

Various kinds of giant fish (pumpkinseeds, eels, perch, killifish, and whatnot).

Bagels, shrieking flocks of seagulls which lower your Karma when you kill them as a "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" reference.

Bugbears, giant jumping spiders taken from the Bogleech Fallout bugs article, occupying the same "killer rabbit" role as wig-wigs in the Edge Chronicles.

Chessies, otter-like creatures that are actually Chesapeake Bay Retrievers mutated to live in a watery environment. They mob your boat, although sometimes it's out of affection.

Crabkens, colony organisms made of hundreds of thousands of blue crabs, which wrap tentacles made of crabs around boats and pull them to the bottom of the Bay.

Goblins, hairless raccoons that dig through ruins.

Hugbugs, giant, mutated lovebugs, the corpses of which can be made into goo bombs and the living of which will swarm you and cook you to death like Japanese honeybees.

Iron crabs, aquatic spy robots that look like crabs.

Loxo zombies, humans infected with a mutated version of Loxothylacus panopaei, with larva-bearing barnacles on their guts. Loxo zombies are obsessed with the propagation of their larvae, but often retain their original personalities.

Misties, island-dwelling wild horses with the ability to turn invisible.

Pentecost lice, a mutated version of Cymothoa exigua found in various fish and in some humans. They have human-sounding voices, and some claim they are oracular.

Snakeheads, humanoid snakehead fish who wear human masks and try, buffoonishly, to infiltrate our society.

Snallygosters, vaguely birdlike/dragonlike creatures with one eye, metal beaks, and a fringe of tentacles surrounding their beaks.

  Factions

Faction 1: The Watermen (The Well-Intentioned But Flawed One)

Leader: Captain Cate Claw, a salty-mouthed woman who runs a fishing boat and uses a mirelurk claw as a hook

Goal: To care for the Tidewater Expanse and survive off its bounty

Distinctive Visual and Behavioral Theme: The Watermen all wear stereotypical yellow hats and raincoats, often with some sea-beast trophy. While they make an effort to care for the Tidewater Expanse, there are many who backslide into overfishing.

Faction 2: The Proven (The Obviously Evil (But Partially Justified?) One)

Leader: Jack Utsumi, a severe-looking and internally tortured scientist

Goal: To utilize the technology of Edgewood (see below) to bring order to the land and possibly restore it to its former glory. Utsumi doesn't want conflict, but many of his henchpeople do.

Distinctive Visual and Behavioral Theme: The Proven are very clean-cut, and enjoy white garb and well-maintained equipment. They incorporate the Brotherhood of Steel's tech thing, but with a less shiny aesthetic than regular Fallout: their tech is black, boxy, and flat, with a somewhat ENIAC switchboard look. The Proven aren't xenophobic, but they do buy heavily into the myth of "make it on your own", ignoring that they're the ones who found all the fancy toys.

Faction 3: The Hons (The Amoral But Not Necessarily Evil One)

Leader: Attila the Hon, a powerful, motherly woman with a scarred face, stilted way of speaking, and flamboyant feathered overcoat

Goal: To make the world a safe space for arts and performance

Distinctive Visual and Behavioral Theme: Think Baltimore "Hon" culture meets old sword-and-sandal films. They employ press-on claw gauntlets, detachable beehive hairdos filled with angry bees, and floral-patterned lorica armor. As previously mentioned, they ride pinkclaws.

Faction 4: The Criers (Actually Interesting Fourth Choice)

Leader: Mr. Raven, a ghoul and former Edgar Allan Poe reenactor, who tries to use "Nevermore" at any opportunity he can get

Goal: To remember history that would otherwise be forgotten

Distinctive Visual and Behavioral Theme: The Criers dress like a mishmash of historical periods, having been cobbled together relics from historical reenactment societies. They research the history of the Tidewater Expanse, both before and after the Great War. Many of them stay permanently in character.

Companions

Male Unaffiliated Companion: Carl Cramer is the smiling-crab-logo-shirted proprietor of the Crab Mart, the convenience store in the Cape (see below). He can be convinced to come adventuring with you to give the Crab Mart a proper mail-order service. He has no fear, but also no sense of self-preservation, and his morality is heavily centered around whether or not people will be able to acquire snacks and household goods with ease and efficiency.

Female Unaffiliated Companion: Ori Paimana, a tall and friendly woman who runs the Cape Marina, and is perhaps overly eager to talk to you about spears, harpoons, and other implements of pointy death. She makes a mean clam chowder. She can be convinced to come adventuring with you to cover any perceived ineptitude with boats or fear of bay monsters.

Robot Companion: Joanna, a synth who wants to leave Kent (see below) behind and find her own way in the world.

Canine Companion: Dwayyo, a loner, a rambler, a rogue, a Captain Ahab with a twinkle in their eye and significantly better intentions than Ahab. Dwayyo is a humanoid dog-thing on the trail of Schnell Geist (see below); think the Kate Beaton "Nemesis" comics.

Third Nonhuman Companion: Dr. Dinky is a landlurk and a skilled science educator. He is also extremely small and frequently falls on his back. It is implied that he is centuries old and can remember his life before the Great War. (There is a real Dinky, a denizen of the education center at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD.)

Evil Companion: vehicle and weapons dealer Big Bill Hell isn't a bad person, necessarily. However, he is incredibly foul-mouthed, claims that he'll fuck the spouses of people he dislikes, and will cheat you out of every cent you've got. Has a horrifying "Challenge Pissing" attack.

Faction 1 Companion: Barnacle Billie, an ecologist working for the Watermen. She may or may not have deliberately become a loxo zombie in an ill-thought-out if effective attempt to transition.

Faction 2 Companion: Babs Eldridge, a computer programmer with the Proven. She has a mother and a sister to provide for, and wants them to be safe.

Faction 3 Companion: Sweet Sal, a beehive-sporting protectron who talks in a LARGE, HAMMY VOICE about GLORIOUS COMBAT. May harbor a crush on the Reporter.

Faction 4 Companion: Samuel Smythe, a minuteman with the Criers who fights with an oversized town crier's bell, and loves the idea of spreading news to the Tidewater Expanse.

Other NPCs:

Violetta Vaughn, one of the Criers in Naptown, who's trying to build airships to ease travel in the area.

Schnell Geist, a giant albino Snallygoster. Reputedly intelligent, Schnell Geist is the Moby Dick of the area.

Natty Boh, the flamboyant, one-eyed mayor of More, and Domino, his hulking assaultron bodyguard. Mayor Boh is head-over-heels in love with local desalination plant owner Ms. Utz, but is absolutely terrible at words, leaving Domino to play the Cyrano.

Locations:

Starting Town: the Cape (Cape Saint Claire, an Annapolis suburb). The Cape's primary conflict is a Hatfields-and-McCoys-esque conflict between two families whose initial conflict is implied to have been competing soccer moms.

Small Town 1: the Glen (Glen Burnie). Here you'll meet the Proven, accused (in one case rightly) of atrocities by some local Watermen. There's also a collection of Criers trying to focus on exploring the ruins of BWI.

Small Town 2: Kent (Kent Island). Kent is a Stepford Wives-esque community, with synths (some of whom don't know they're synths) turning out cheerful, idyllic trinkets for people using what remains of the island as a stop on the water routes.

The Big City: More (Baltimore). More is the bustling metropolis, and the trade hub and entertainment center of the Tidewater Expanse. It is the headquarters of the Hons, and where you meet Sweet Sal, as well as Big Bill Hell.

The Less Big City: Naptown (Annapolis). Naptown is abuzz with activity from the Criers, looking to recover historic items, and home to some very good crab places. You'll meet Barnacle Billie here.

The Sketchy City: Edgewood (Aberdeen Proving Ground). Edgewood is full of weapons dealers, mercenaries, and folk seeking to plunder the stores of the Aberdeen Proving Ground. You'll meet Babs Eldridge, and the rest of the Proven, here. The Proven look down upon the rabble of Edgewood.

Faction 1 Headquarters: The Academy, formerly the Naval Academy and now repurposed as the largely pacifist and scientific academy of the Watermen.

Faction 2 Headquarters: the Arsenal, a former army compound near Edgewood.

Faction 3 Headquarters: Hon Street, an enclave located within More, patrolled by pinkclaws and actually a nice, if very loud, place to live.

Faction 4 Headquarters: the Historic London Town and Gardens, remarkably well-preserved.

Scary Sidequest Dungeon: Druid Ridge. A drowned catacomb beneath the former cemetery. Something haunts it. Something powerful and monstrous. Something that you'd mistake for the statuary. Something artificial that came back to its namesake's old resting place…

Funny Sidequest Dungeon: The Maryland State House, final goal of a National Treasure-esque mission the Criers send you on. Its puzzles are … pretty dang goofy.

Tedious and Enormous Sidequest Dungeon: Crabcracker Cove. A giant mirelurk nest where you have to collect samples from every single mirelurk you kill. It takes a long-ass while to get them out.

Super Weird Sidequest Dungeon: Long Bridge. A covered bridge in the north that is far bigger, far darker, and takes far longer to cross than by rights it should. Contains the holographic ghosts and ghost people from Dead Money, way too many crying baby noises, and a Goatman.

The Obligatory Vault: Vault 18. Vault 18 was designed to protect the culinary knowledge of the world, and taught its denizens to treat recipes with ritual importance. Its denizens wear yellow metal armor and plague doctor masks filled with 18 sacred herbs and spices.

I fucking hate Old Bay seasoning.

[carys-awen]

I sort of half agree with this. Definitely structures of prejudice are built into academia, but at the same time the way we are taught to write often sacrifices clarity and readability for obeying strict rules that maybe don't serve the purpose theyre alleged to. I don't mean using jargon, which I agree is often necessary and helpful. I mean that I've read papers in my own field that take me hours to get through because they are so obtuse, and I'll get to the end and realize they've taken 20 or 40 pages to say absolutely nothing, but they follow the rules of scientific presentation to the letter and get into prestigious journals. I mean that I've read articles that hide behind the passive voice to appear objective when they are engaged in writing about marginalized communities like they're some sort of exotic, ineffable animal. I mean that we're so obsessed with telling a particular kind of story that we end up imposing faulty, bad narratives over data that doesn't fit them, which yeah is a problem with science more generally, but which also affects the coherence and thereby the accessibility of the writing because all of the individual bits do not add up to a complete whole and people who read them feel stupid as a result. I've seen students completely discouraged about even finishing an undergrad degree because they couldn't understand something -- I've seen the relief on those students faces when they're told that no, that paper is just bad, its just hard to tell because it follows The Rules (and if you think all students are discouraged equally regardless of race or gender or class or ability you have another think coming).

I don't think we need to write so any random fifth grader could understand what we're talking about, but I do think we need to write so that anyone who had an understanding of stats and specialist terms (whatever their age, precocious 10 year old to nerdy octogenarian) could follow along and not feel like they're being subjected to some kind of alien torture. I think we need to write like human beings doing science instead of robots bestowing holy truths upon the world. Sure its only one part of accessibility, but its not a baseless claim that academic writing is often alienating in its sheer, structural badness, and often uses that structural badness to imply a level of objectivity that is not actually humanly possible.

(Also obviously the tenure thing is complicated, because a lot of people have it who don't deserve it and got it through privilege, but if you take that pitch to a university board you are going to end up with more labour abuses where academics are not properly compensated for their work, which is already a widespread problem which specifically has the effect that fewer women and fewer racial minorities and fewer working class people progress in academia. We don't need tenure necessarily but we do need some kind of job security).

I cannot stand the “academic writing is inaccessible (and ableist and classist and racist) because its So Hard to Understand” argument

Academia is racist and cements class antagonism by its very structure and mode of existence, not because you don’t want to put the effort in reading or learning. Academia is racist and “classist” by its admission standards, it test score standards, is demographic quotas, in the adherence to a propagandistic white western canon, and its flip side the tokenization of BIPOC voices, in the very system of paying for education, loan debts, school districts, funding, material inaccessibility, journal paywalls, the complete deprivation of publicly readily available knowledge, the impoverishment of common intellectual life.

A more accessible academic life would see the complete shattering of the ivory walls. Life long learning. The end of tenure. The end of capitalistic competition in publishing the newest piece of trash. 

There is bad writing. Of course. But when I see “write so a 5th grader can understand” I hear a call for the further impoverishment of intellectual life. A disregard for intellectual rigor. 

And worse, I hear a complete infantilization and dehumanization of the very people you’re trying to advocate for. Black people are not stupid. Poor people are not stupid. People with mental illness are not stupid. And they’re certainly not in “5th grade”

[entertainmentfarm-blog]

How digital marketing will change in 2020

Staying on head of the speed of progress in digital is one of the main things that in-house advertisers and business proprietors stress over. 

In any case, the beginning of 2020 brings a second to lift our heads over the relentless business of 'getting things done', allowing us to look forward and plan for a fruitful year ahead. 

To assist this with processing along, I have outlined a portion of the progressions that will shape the Indian digital marketing scene in 2020. 

1. We finally surrender not everything in digital can be estimated 

The ascent of digital carried with it a conviction all marketing exercises could be estimated. 

Gone was the supposition 'a large portion of the cash I spend on advertising is squandered, the difficulty is I don't know which half', and with this came a fixation on hard measurements, for example, cost per click, cost per lead and cost per deal. 

Over late years, be that as it may, this fixation on precise measurements has begun to change. 

We currently better perceive the intricacy of the purchaser venture in most industry portions, the channels accessible to focus on, the truth of multi-gadget use, and the more prominent refinement of remarketing and retargeting. 

Actually, it's for all intents and purposes difficult to quantify with certainty the effect of all digital marketing exercises. I accept 2020 will be the tipping point when advertisers and business proprietors start to genuinely get this. From this, judicious leaders will see that drawn out digital marketing ought to be embraced without a dollar-in-dollar-out desire. 

This won't simply apply to conventional longer-term marketing, for example, SEO and substance, yet in addition paid channels, for example, Google, YouTube and Facebook, which have by and large been seen as unadulterated execution channels. 

Increased time and exertion will be spent on exercises introducing individuals to a brand and supporting them in the early and center phases of their purchaser venture, instead of obsessing over exacting ROI at the base of the channel. Basically, this implies aligning marketing endeavors (and estimation) with this present reality purchaser venture. 

2. The ascent of StoryBrand with stories at the center 

In the expressions of American creator and open speaker Don Miller, who is gaining reputation in digital marketing agency meeting rooms, brands need to quit playing the legend in the story, however instead, invite clients into the story. 

With online life now a center mainstay of digital marketing, Don's StoryBrand Framework (and varieties) is becoming ever imperative to assist better with explaining a business' offer and bring clients along for the excursion with interactive and customized content. 

In 2020, fruitful businesses will sharpen their message in a manner that better explains their incentive as it is seen by their possibilities. There will be less spotlight on their image and instead correspondences will take advantage of the intrinsic and extrinsic sparks driving purchasing choices as well as brand-to-purchaser connections. 

3. Google goes to the gathering with Gallery Ads 

We realize that pictures drive interest. It's essential to our tendency. More pictures must mean beneficial things for a business. 

Fortunately, Google has raised the stakes, and is planning to dispatch Gallery Ads in mid 2020. They are Google's likeness Facebook merry go round advertisements and will just show up on cell phones. They will permit you to wed the best bits of search and show into one promotion. 

On the off chance that your business is in a division where outwardly appealing symbolism is a major piece of getting possibilities over the line, for example, travel, food or wellness, at that point you will have the option to exhibit up to eight pictures alongside your headline and depiction when someone looks for your item or administration. 

Google has consistently pushed devoted versatile battles and the advantages have not generally been clear. Yet, having a different spending plan for versatile advertising and being set up to offer high to get that desired first spot and dominate the outcomes page is looking like a decent technique because of this new element. 

4. Robotization in media stages 

The large players, for example, Google and Facebook, will continue to drive us into using their set-up of computerization choices when running paid battles. The test will be to determine when this works in your interests and when it doesn't. There is no uncertainty that over the long haul, computerization will bring numerous advantages to the lives of advertisers and specialists, yet the inquiry in the shorter term is the point at which this will be the situation and when it won't. 

We should be wise with respect to when machines can do things more productively and at a superior level than people, and when innovation won't comprehend the intricacies of a crusade and that human touch will even now be required. 

5. Personalisation and marketing to sections of one 

Never have we had the option to access such a top to bottom understanding of our intended interest groups. A lot of this is down to the incredible targeting abilities of promotion stages and the development of digital marketing devices. 

This opens unexplored chances to be progressively meaningful and convincing with sustain battles by means of EDM, marketing robotization and through digital media purchases. No longer does personalisation mean first-name customisation. 

Businesses, even little ones, can no longer prevail without an exceptionally custom fitted way to deal with crowd division, since crowds will no longer acknowledge nonexclusive correspondence. 

Clearly, security concerns will forestall stages, for example, Google and Facebook allowing us to section down to crowds of one, yet the topic towards more noteworthy division and personalisation will continue in 2020. The manner in which fruitful brands market to clients will continue to limit. 

6. In the event that it moves, use it 

Video and movement in digital advertising drive results. As an agency, our crusades are normally increasingly viable when we introduce video and activity. We have seen this pattern develop in the previous two years, and in 2019, businesses that invested intensely underway saw profits. This is where your rivals are likely paying, and you have to begin considering this truly. 

It doesn't need to be expensive, it simply should have an engaging quality with sound marketing thinking behind it. 

7. Voice search turns into a 'genuine article' 

Three to four years back, articles like this one talked about the impending dominance of voice search. Reasonable for state that in India this hasn't eventuated like many idea. 

Indeed, there has been a consistent ascent of voice-based inquiries, however it hasn't overturned the digital marketing scene. 

However, that is changing. 

With over 25% of Indian grown-ups owning a voice-empowered gadget and likely comparable numbers in India, 2020 will stamp the point when advertisers need to begin considering voice genuinely when devising digital crusades. 

8. Those without marketing computerization won't contend 

Marketing robotization stages have been around for longer than 10 years. We are currently past the tipping point as far as appropriation of these stages. 

By this, I mean on the off chance that you are in a serious space (a large portion of us are) at that point not having a marketing mechanization stage adequately running in your business will mean you won't have the option to contend with regards to marketing, deals and maximizing an incentive from client altruism. 

In turn, this implies needing to invest a higher level of income into deals and marketing endeavors contrasted with your opposition thus as not to be off guard. 

Regardless of whether it's bigger stages, for example, Marketo, Eloqua or Salesforce Marketing Cloud or stages appropriate for littler and mid-advertise businesses, for example, HubSpot, Autopilot or Infusionsoft, you have to survey the correct stage for your business and focus on it. 

Wrap it up 

One year from now will bring heaps of progress in digital marketing, as consistently has for as long as two decades. In saying this, heaps will remain the equivalent. 

Very much done email marketing will continue to work. 

Search endeavors, both paid and natural, will be pivotal for siphoning off traffic of high intent. 

Social channels, for example, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn will continue to permit you to fabricate focused on crowds and prospect for excellent traffic. 

Good karma with 2020 marketing planning and have an extraordinary year!