#should i clarify that for most of the route i was taking the speed limit was 35-45mph so like.

[jonathanrook]

the wouldge video. cw extreme violence.

[genshin-impact-fics]

To Protect

Pairing: Kaiser x Albedo (OcXCanon)

Warning: If you haven't done the "We Will Be Reunited" chapter of the story know that this fic is kind of spolierish.

A/N: It's been a while since I've written a fic so I'm a lil on the rusty side. I'm also thinking of writing an alternative route/ending of this story which will go one of two ways I have in mind :3

It seemed that the Abyss Order was hunting down any sort of lead of powerful beings that the prince/princess could utilize to rid the world of the archons and gods alike from this world. It seemed like their latest target was a certain alchemist that spent his time up in the cold mountains of Dragonspine.

Once again Albedo was up in the harshly cold mountains working on a new experiment that should enhance a person’s resilience to the sheer cold in Dragonspine. If he could manage to create an effective formula then it would make traversing the cold land a little bit easier especially the knights that needed to be there; however the traveler was away doing commissions which meant he’d have to look for someone else which thankfully Albedo was able to once again request the help of his fellow knight member and friend Kaiser. The two were currently standing by a fire nearby the open area where the cyro hypostasis resides. “I’m not going to get sick from this one will I,” Kaiser asked while examining the liquid contents within the vile as last time he had her assist with an experiment, they quickly discovered that she happened to be very allergic to energy nectar. Albedo still felt terribly about that incident as he never wanted to harm others with his experiments though there just seemed to be some things that were out of his control; since then he’s made sure to not give her anything with any nectar in it, not wanting to see her suffer like she did again.

“I promise you that you shouldn’t get sick from this as I’ve taken the liberty of trying on myself first to ensure your safety. But because I don't get too bothered I needed someone who would best benefit from this,” he reassured her as yes after a prolonged amount of time he’ll get very cold so the data he’ll collect from this trail should give him a good understanding of where to go from there. “Right,” she said, opening it and drinking it all before handing back the empty vile. “So all I have to do is stay in the cold for however long until I feel like I’m freezing,” she reiterated to clarify what she was doing exactly. Giving a firm nod he gave a ghost of a smile before saying, “Yes you’re correct. I’ve mapped out areas with groups of hilichurl camps that you can take care of. If at any time you’re getting cold or don’t feel well we can rest at a safe spot and go over my findings.”

With that the two set out as Albedo led the way to the locations he plotted in advance. Things were going smoothly thus far as currently they were at the fourth location and Albedo watched in the short distance observing Kaiser fight the last frostarm lawachurl. Her movements swift and flawless, truly a beautiful sight to witness: the way her long black hair flowed in the chilled winds and flakes of snow, how the electricity she admitted danced around her, even the precision of her swordsmanship with her rapier. Albedo had the urge to take the time to draw this very moment to capture the elegance he saw in Kaiser, but stayed focused on keeping notes as he certainly had taken notice that her normal speed rate was decreasing possibly due to the cold most likely starting to take effect.

The frostarm lawachurl was finally defeated as Kaiser walked over rejoining Albedo and now that she was much closer he could easily see her cheeks and nose were a soft pink color. “How are you feeling,” he asked immediately as he was thinking of possibly calling this a stopping point so she could warm up not wanting her to over do it. “Feeling pretty cold but it isn’t unbearable. Shall we head to the next location? You said there were two more right so let's head out,” she said, turning to walk off but by instinct he quickly grabbed her wrist to stop her from going any further to which she seemed to instantly glance back at him with narrowed eyes. “I think we should at least to take a break and get you warmed up; you’ve surpassed the estimated time I initially hypothesized,” he voiced his opinion to the slightly taller woman. Letting out a small sign a puff of air came from Kaiser as she glanced at his hand that was holding her wrist before glancing back to him; he really was lucky she liked him because if this had been any other person she would have most likely beat the crap out of them by now. “I’ll be fine, besides it shouldn’t take that much longer right? Let’s just finish up and then I’ll rest,” she said persisting that they continue forth with the experiment. Much to his displeasure he decided to listen as he’d be sure to keep a little closer in case he needed to step in and finish the fight so he could get her somewhere warm and possibly mend what injuries she sustained.

For the fifth location they ended up in the open area that had a once active fighting mechanism as there happen to be a few hilichurls still hanging around. He watched as she went over to repeat her process of fighting enemies. His note taking didn’t last much longer as finally he succumbed to his urges of sketching Kaiser and even including the astonishing serpent made out of electricity that went around attacking the hilichurls. When it seemed like she finished off the last one suddenly more came running out of nowhere to attack. Not wasting a second he tossed his clipboard aside to assist her in fighting as surely she had to have been at her tolerant limit.

“I had it perfectly under control. I didn’t need help,” Kaiser said, looking over to Albedo after the last one fell. Her face was much more redder in the nose and cheeks as he could see how she tried to refrain from shivering; letting out a sigh he shouldn’t be surprised, she really does do everything to finish a job by any means necessary. Letting out a small sigh he now stood in front of Kaiser as he was grateful for her hard work but he also worried for her well being. “Yes I know but the way all those hilichurls came out of nowhere was very strange almost as if-” he was saying now holding his chin as he was speculating until suddenly there was a large and strange portal that opened up a couple feet away from the two knights. The two exchanged glances before looking at the portal as two abyss mages came floating out and another one came out that they’ve never seen before: a very tall being dressed in full armor that was dark blue stood between the two mages. “So it is true that the prince of chalk walks these lands. My highness will be pleased with our findings,” the armored being spoke.

Albedo was confused by what this being was saying, but regardless it didn’t sound good. Gripping her rapier tighter in her grasp despite the violent chills running up and down her spine she was prepared to fight. “You’re in no condition to fight,” Albedo said as he knew this fight would be pretty much unavoidable yet he feared that at this rate she’s at a high risk of falling ill and even possibly fainting during battle. “I’ll worry about it later,” she simply said before she was gone in a flash of purple electricity for him to see her already attacking the tall figure with whatever full force she had left in herself. Quick to join the fight he could only wonder if this was the same being that Jean mentioned from the incident that took place in Wolvendom not too long ago. The mages were the easier ones to take out; however, it seemed that even with the two of them against what they learned was to be an abyss Herald was surprisingly difficult. It was when a large burst of water sent them flying back some leaving a couple of feet that separated the two. In a fit of coughing Kaiser slowly pushed herself back up; her body feeling like she fell in the cold waters that surrounded the area, at this point it felt so cold that it was burning. Albedo also recovered from the knock back looking over to check on his dear friend who seemed to not be faring well and how the Herald was staring in her direction, that didn’t sit well with him. “What an interesting display of power,” the Herald said before turning his attention onto Albedo before continuing with “But onto more pressing matters.”

The Herald was beginning to speak in an old language chanting some sort of spell that soon enough right underneath Albedo a circle with various symbols began to appear in a glowing purple color. The glowing beneath him caught his attention causing his teal eyes to widen in surprise; his body standing still instead of moving to get outside of the mysterious circle trying to read the symbols. The glowing only seemed to grow stronger as more purplish mist came from the ground, he might have just left himself in a bad situation. The sound of running boots crunching in the snow didn’t register to him until he was broken out of his thinking when feeling hands harshly pushing him away as he heard, “Move it!” Feeling the cold snow that he landed in it fully brought him back to earth; the sound of rattling chains rung in his ears.

Quick to look over where he once stood to see what happened his eyes widened in terror; Kaiser was trapped completely binded by chains that had that eerily purple mist around it. “Kaiser,” Albedo called her name as once again she protected him from a dangerous situation. His stomach turned feeling nauseous and his chest stung as if it was being twisted. Kaiser looked like she was trying to struggle against the chains yet it was clear she didn’t have much energy to keep up the struggling for too long. “How unexpected,” the Herald said without much of a change in it’s tone. “Get out of here,” Kaiser said looking over to him from the corner of her eye wincing out of pain from trying to breath. Looking over to her he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, she was asking him to just… abandon her here? Shaking his head in a quick no manner he loudly claimed, “I simply cannot just abandon you here by yourself! I will do no such thing.”

“I’m not asking, I’m telling you to leave me here and head down the mountain!”

“But-”

“Can it! Go and alert the others, I’ll try to hold on for as long as I can,” Kaiser said internally knowing it wouldn’t be for that much longer before she blacked out. He’s never felt so useless in his life before yet here he was unmoving from his spot on the snow covered ground unsure of what to do. He was starting to blame himself for everything and there wasn’t a thing he could do to save the person he deeply cared about.

“For someone who holds so much animosity towards the world you still protect its people. Why? Why oppose the Abyss Order,” the abyss Herald asked as Albedo looked at Kaiser. He knew of her past from the stories she’s trusted him enough to tell him and so he understood her anguish… But he never really realized how deep the anger she harbored truly ran. “Just because I hate the world… Doesn’t mean I- have to hate… Everyone in… It,” she managed to speak through her teeth.

Out of nowhere did a tornado come flying through hitting the abyss member and causing him to be pulled away a bit. “You leave our friends alone,” the familiar high pitched voice of Paimon could be heard as much to Albedo’s relief as the traveler had shown up just at the perfect time. Watching the traveler fight against the Herald was outstanding. While the fight was progressing Albedo noticed the chains suddenly disappearing around Kaiser and her body starting to fall over he was quick on his feet and stopped her from falling into the snow. Landing on his knees he held her close feeling her trembling unconscious body against his. Her already pale enough skin now looked almost porcelain white, he couldn’t waste any more time; he needed to get her back to the safety of the lab. Adjusting her and picking her up into his arms he made a hasty escape, the two of them wouldn’t have been any help to the traveler in their condition, they would have just gotten in the way.

Thank the archons that he managed to get back to his lab in the cave safely, but this wasn’t the time to take it easy. Quickly but carefully laying Kaiser at a safe distance from the fire he rushed to get the first aid kit and whatever medicine he had on hand that could help with her recovery. Never had he felt this… Frazzled in his life. Albedo was always so calm and collected he usually was always able to think logically, but now his brain was racing. Cleaning and mending her wounds he wrapped her in two layers of blankets that they kept just in case for the nights if anyone was staying for the night to help warm her up. Sitting beside her to observe her condition though so far she was doing well: the color in her skin was slowly coming back, her breathing didn’t seem to be too strained or shallow, and thankfully nothing appeared to be broken though she may have a bruised rib or two at most. Gently running an ungloved hand over her cheek before brushing some of her black locks away from her face. “Oh Katherine, what am I going to do with you,” he softly questioned himself using her actual name; he thought her name was beautiful and befitting of her yet she didn’t agree.

Hours had passed until she finally awoken as a soft groaning escaped her lips. It took her a moment to register where she was as she tried to recall what happened since the last thing she remembered before passing out was a vortex of wind hitting the abyss Herald. “Please refrain from getting up. Your body needs rest, you put yourself under a lot more stress than you should have,” Albedo advised her while walking over to kneel by her to check on her. She didn’t heed his words as she proceeded to carefully sit up feeling the soreness of her body. “Katherine your wounds won’t heal if you don’t take the time to rest.”

“What did I say about using my name?”

“Well you did say that I can be permitted to call you as such when it was just us Katherine,” he said in a matter of fact tone unable to contain the soft sigh. “I hate when you do that,” she said with a soft narrowed look as though she may have sounded annoyed, but it didn’t match the slightly amused expression on her face. A soft chuckle left his lips as he felt a little bit better seeing she wasn’t acting much different from how she usually did so at least that was a good sign. The two ate the meal Albedo cooked for the two of them as he filled her in on what she missed and how he sent the traveler to go ahead back to the headquarters to report what happened to Jean. After having finished eating and her taking medicine the two sat quietly in front of the fire. The only sound to be heard was the crackling of the fire and the whistling of the cold winds outside of the cave.

“You can’t keep doing this,” Albedo’s words breaking the silence between the two, looking over to her with a soft expression. Looking over she raised an eyebrow confused.

“Doing what?”

“Almost getting killed for protecting me.”

“Albedo if I didn’t save you when I did you would have been captured by the abyss order for whatever they’re planning! One thing for sure is that they’d turn you against us,” she rebutted as sure being in dangerous situations was something she was used to before being brought into the Knights of Favonius. “E-Eh, hey wait why are you crying,” she said in a slightly panicked manner as never in the time she’s known him has she seen him cry; actually she was pretty sure that he had just about never cried yet here he was. He hadn’t fully noticed the tears falling from his eyes as he felt a rippling pain in his chest listening to her as the events from earlier replayed in his head.

“Even if they did capture me I’d at least know you were safe. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if that creature had taken or killed you,” he honestly spoke as calmly rubbing one eye and the tears just didn’t seem to stop. Surely he would feel even more guilty if he had been the reason behind her and everyone else he cared about suffered, but he knew if it came to that Albedo had faith that the traveler or Kaiser would stop him. The slight irritation she felt from the conversation at hand subsided while listening to him talk. Letting out a sigh she carefully moved herself before reaching her arms out to grab him as she said, “You idiot, come here.” Hugging him around his neck she held him close as there was a moment of hesitation until he wrapped his arms around her completing the embrace. “Everything is fine now, we’re both alive… I’m sorry that I overdid things again. If I had just listened maybe we wouldn’t have gotten into that mess,” she said, speaking in a much softer tone than her usual cold tone, her face turning a light pink color.

Albedo pulled away to look at his beloved friend who he had come to cherish so much; how the fire gave her a soft orangish red glow to her figure. “It wasn’t your fault, you were just helping me as neither of us knew that attack was going to happen… I really do value the time we get to spend together, so please promise me that you’ll continue to stay by my side,” he spoke freely taking one of her hands into his own feeling the slight roughness of her hand. For someone who almost never made any kind of expression that showed his emotion, the faces he made were pretty cute. “... Yeah, I pinkie promise,” she said letting out a small chuckle before leaning in to give his cheek a kiss before resting her head on his shoulder feeling the tiredness kicking in again.

“A pinkie promise?”

“Hehe, what can I say; us Snezhnayans take our promises very seriously.”

“Is that so? I’d be interested to hear more if you’re willing to share,” he commented as it was comfortable being cuddled up like this by the fire, Albedo found it very pleasant to be this close to the female knight. The rest of the night Kaiser shared the old nursery rhyme and stories of her past along with the things she’s encountered during her travels in the past until the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms.

[daddysfangirls-marvel]

To Clarify

Request 

warning: fluff, 

Summary: Pietro falling for an android vision had made to be his sister

After the battle With Ultron, the work was not done. The Avengers moved all the citizens far away from the city as they could and then combed the ruins for survivors and any lingering metal bots. Very few survivors were found and there were no lingering bots but what was found was another cradle. In this cradle was another body but this body didn’t have a stone and it was a female.

Now in any other case, they would have easily gotten rid of the body and moved on with their lives but this woman was alive this woman held a heartbeat even if there was literally nothing in her mind. All of them were conflicted with the idea of just turning her off especially with Vision around. So they decided to keep her and finish making her, hopefull not gaining another Ultron.

She was not like Vision she didn’t have a power source such as the stone so Tony built her a reactor such as his. And her body was different more “detailed” and human-like than Vision yet more electronic as she could easily plug herself into any server which was great for missions and gathering information. She also didn’t eat but she did sleep... sort of, more like charged or downloaded. At night she would plug herself up an everyday charge wasn’t necessary only every month if she didn’t do anything crazy but she did like to download and gather information from the internet. Constantly keeping herself smart.

As a creation, she was a miracle just as Vision maybe even more. A show that life could be made with technology and it wasn’t limited and depended to just woman. But after the whole Ultron downfall, no one in their right mind would bust out the idea of robot babies so nothing was really going to come from her at least not now.

As a person, Her name was (Y/n). She was the electronic daughter of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner and sister of Vision. She was shy as she didn’t understand most human interaction but kind and offered help to anyone who asked for it and incredibly smart she had the answers to just about everything and if she didn’t you surely would know everything you asked and more the next day.

Not only was she sweet, kind, and had a good heart she caught the heart of the Avengers most annoying speedster, Pietro.

Most people said when they met the loves of their lives their hearts speed up but in Pietro’s case his heart slowed down along with time. It was like everything slowed down when he first saw her everything moved in slow motion. Everything was just ...her. And then he ran through a glass door. She asked Tony if people normally did that because her data said nothing about that. Awesome first impression.

“Hello, I am (Y/n)” she said smiling kindly. The others quickly introduced themselves shaking her and hugging her and welcoming her to the family. The only person who didn’t introduce themselves was Pietro he instead remained in the corner of the room watching as others did. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t bring himself to walk up to her as he was nervous. For the first time ever he was nervous he was too fast to think long enough to be nervous and here he was nervous. He didn’t know what to do.

“Pietro? are you okay?” Wanda asked when she noticed his brother’s change in behavior.

“um...yeah, yeah, I’m okay”

“come say hi”

“okay”

Wanda slowly leads her brother to the group that was still introducing themselves to (Y/n). She smiled as she saw him coming her way.

“Hey, I’m- I’m Pietro”

Everyone stopped as the heard Pietro smart mouth, talkback, ladies girl, speedster Pietro was stuttering. It was definitely a shock and had everybody leaning back in amusement wanting to see what exactly what was going to happen. This was funny.

“Hello, I’m (Y/n). I’ve heard that you are fast”

“Yeah, I’m pretty fast” he chuckled a bit rubbing his head nervously.

“Maybe I can observe your speed later on”

“Um sure yeah, yeah. That would be yeah” She smiled kindly and went back to talk to Vision. Pietro blushed as she looked then he noticed the others looking at him amused he huffed then speed away quickly. 

-

Pietro watched as (y/n) and Vision was in a deep conversation talking about some fascinating human thing they discovered or learned about and now understand. 

“You’ve been staring at them for the last 30 minutes,” Clint said as he leaned on the counter next to Pietro and stared at them as well. “ You should go talk to her”

“About what”

“Anything, I’m sure your mind is speeding through topics as we speak.”

“That’s kind of the problem. My mind is speeding through topics I can’t pick one especially one that will get her attention.”

“Did she say she wanted to observe your speed at one point.”

“Yeah a couple of weeks ago”

“that’s something to talk about and it looks like he found it interesting.”

“You’re right yeah. Okay”

This is not at all what he expected. Pietro was running and (Y/n)’s eyes were on a special Stark tablet and the treadmill instead of him and to top it off Vision was also here.

“You’re quite amazing I bet you could run to Florida and back in a couple of hours if you wanted to maybe even less.” She praised him. He blushed and began to slow down suddenly he was stumbling off the treadmill and went flying across the room. “ Was that suppose to happen?”

“no, I don’t believe so. Pietro, are you alright?

“I’m fine Vision,” he said through his teeth although he was pretty sure a large bruise would be forming on his back soon. “ I think that’s enough for today. I’m going to get a snack”. And he speeded off to the kitchen.

“OW. How did it go?” Clint asked as Natasha popped his hand from trying to take her food.

“diaster. She invited Vision bare;y even talked and when she did I made myself look like a fool and feel of the treadmill and landed on my back,” he said then dropped his head on the table with a loud bang.

“Sound like you got it bad,” Natasha said. Thanks to Clint she was up to speed on the situation already. “ Maybe you should stop trying so hard and go the easy route. You know just ask her out already”

“what and am I suppose to say? Hey (Y/n) you’re cute let's go on a date?”

“Okay”

Pietro jumped and Clint and Natasha smiled as he turned around to Find (y/n) standing behind him. When he left she did not believe him when he said he was okay so after giving Vision all the research they had gathered she decided to go check on him and she ended up walking into the end of their conversation and catching his question. which she happily answered.

Giving him her answer and see that he was indeed okay she began to walk away but then stopped and turned around. “To clarify you do mean date as in a social or romantic engagement or appointment?” he nodded “ Okay then yes”. And with that, she walked away again.

“How hard was that?” Clint asked smirking

“See you didn’t have to watch her from afar for weeks like a creep you could have just asked her out. “ Natasha teased

“Shut up and help me plan a date”

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[dykemelon]

I can’t sleep so I guess I can just use my blog as a journal

On Tuesday morning I was supposed to see a new primary care doctor from the UCLA gender health program because a) I need a new primary care doctor since I moved and b) I was told she could help me with my tricky insurance situation wrt bottom surgery. Which is the stupidest answer I could have possibly been given upon asking for help with navigating insurance but like fine. I will ask an entire physician for administrative help.

The appointment was at 8:40 in Santa Monica, and the traffic between here and there can get pretty nasty, so I left at 7am. Google said I would get there on time, but it also recommended I take a canyon road down to the ocean and then drive along the ocean to Santa Monica. I took this advice.

The estimate of when I would get there started climbing rapidly every time i stopped at a light, which was really scary. I thought that perhaps it was expecting me to be driving faster. It suddenly said it would be faster if I took an even more winding canyon road, which kind of made sense since I knew there was construction on the part I would be skipping. However this sucked as well - trying to navigate through intersections of small mountain roads along with everyone else in the increasingly heavy rush hour traffic. Eventually I broke away from whatever route everyone else was taking and could drive unimpeded, but the road was very twisty and the estimated arrival time kept going up. I was very distressed, thinking that the reason this route was recommended to me was because google thought I could drive the speed limit through here, which was absolutely not reasonable. I was going to be 20 minutes late at that point.

Then I got into a line of cars, moving very very slowly, intermittently.

When I say I was distressed, I should clarify that I was *very* distressed. I thought this whole thing was my fault for taking Google’s advice over common sense (even though this was not a familiar drive and there was no common sense to be had). I have Issues. I had a serious meltdown sitting in that line of cars, watching the arrival estimate grow to fourty minutes late. I eventually realized that paying such close attention to the projected arrival stats was functioning as self harm and cut that shit out.

I called the phone number I had been given for the doctor’s office and told them that I was going to be very late. I was told that I should come in anyway. This helped a lot.

I eventually realized that there had been an accident on the ocean-side highway, blocking all lanes of traffic. I got rerouted through side streets, but as soon as I got off the highway I was incredibly paranoid that the accident had been cleared and everything was running at full speed behind me, but google was going full sunk-cost fallacy and not re-rerouting me, so I forced the app to uncache and reload the directions, but suddenly my phone stopped being able to access the internet.

My phone has problems with losing data intermittently, but this was different. Usually it looks like some baseband function is stuck in a crash loop for a few cycles, but this looked like everything was fine - except I couldn’t connect to the internet. There was just barely enough map data cached that I could navigate myself through the disgusting bougie LA suburb (very slowly, along with everyone else fucked over by the crash).

I got there at 10:10, an hour and a half late. I was told that the doctor was very busy and could not see me, and that the person who took my call had been at a call center and that I should ask to be connected to the actual office next time. I had another meltdown sitting in the waiting room. At one point an elderly woman with a hearing problem and a walker was checking in and made some comment about “never knowing what to say in fields asking for my pronouns, ha ha :)” which was just absolutely too much for me and refreshed my crying. This fucking woman was being accommodated so much, every aspect of her disability and marginalization was being accommodated and she laughed at the accommodation that wasn’t for her. Fuck her.

It never fails to just make me feel so very shameful whenever I need to cry in public about being visibly trans and having colored hair. I just feel so exposed and visible and all of that was my choice! But I can’t take it back and now I am simultaneously proud and shameful and glowing and hurt. It’s such an ugly contradiction.

I eventually got rescheduled to see someone else (but technically I still have the same primary care doctor that I couldn’t see) on Thursday morning (today!). I was advised to leave earlier next time and said something unnecessary harsh in response. I walked back to my car, had another sobbing session, and drove home. It only took 41 minutes going the other way.

Conclusions: I hate that cars are the primary form of transit in the United States and that LA’s public transit is so awful. I hate that medicine is so administrative. I hate that the world is oriented for morning people. I hate that capitalism strings together the most tedious web of problems and solutions and calls it the best thing on earth. And I hate feeling this many emotions.

[marcelrigby-blog]

Investing in a Digital Camera? Avoid an error With 7 Insider Points

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[halogensleep]

a warzone could be the happiest place on earth (if i was there with you)

Charlotte looked to the overhead cabin for a moment to gather herself, her thoughts, her last bit of patience. The other passengers had started to disembark with grumbles and agitated, inconvenienced tsks. Charlotte refused to remove her seatbelt, still. The human sales-jingle sat beside her began to nudge her fingers towards the buckled clasp in an attempt to gain some progress.

Charlotte slapped her hand away.

“Rebecca I am not getting off of this fucking plane,” Charlotte dropped her voice to a severe whisper.

Becky lifted her chin. “Oh believe me, yes you are!” She nodded emphatically.

“I’m not,” Charlotte protested with a petulant shake of the head. “Nope, I’m not doing this.”

“We’re going to get up and go to the hotel for the night,” Becky insisted softly, as if she were reassuring and placating a child throwing a tantrum. “The bus drops us off, it picks us up in the afternoon, and Bob’s your uncle, we’re off to Tel Aviv!” It was said with the most upbeat, cheery voice possible.

The human sales-jingle tried to unbuckle the seatbelt again. Charlotte slapped her hand away a little harder this time.

“Please don’t do this,” her wife warned, already anticipating the meltdown.

“Cyprus is forty minutes west. This plane is either taking us there, or I’m going to sit here until a charter jet is on the runway ready for us.” Charlotte forcefully tempered her voice into a strange, deceivingly calm tone. “I’ll sit here on the tarmac all day, please try me. I am fresh out of fucks, Becky.”

“Do not do this.” Becky pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is really not the time or place to make a scene—”

“Oh, so now I’m making a scene!” Charlotte lost it, her head bobbing sarcastically. “Don’t worry, Charlotte. I’ll book a secret getaway, it will be like we’re on an episode of The Bachelor!” She parroted Becky’s words from a few, short weeks ago. “Good one, Becky! Look at us now, stuck here!” She pointed to the dusty, mountainous terrain beyond the window where civil unrest and war was brewing.

“Listen to me,” Becky lowered her voice to a tight, Irish whisper. “If you don’t march your arse off of this bloody plane I promise that you will never, ever, for as long as you live, see my rose again—”

“You know what I see right now?” Charlotte snapped and fidgeted deeper into the aisle seat. “Our lives, flashing before my eyes. You promised me relaxing! And this?” Her pointer finger gestured towards everything and nothing. “This ain’t it, chief.”

“Well maybe if you stopped being so dramatic then we could start relaxing!” The Man challenged and thumped herself backwards into her seat, embarrassed and glaring. “People are staring. We’re now that couple. The couple people stare at. I hope you’re pleased with yourself.”

“Becky we just made an emergency landing in the middle of Beirut!” Crescent-shaped marks were left either side of her nose from the pinching. “The plane had to corkscrew the landing so we didn’t get targeted by anti-aircraft fire!”

“That was a precautionary measure!” Becky snapped back.

“We are two women travelling alone who just so happen to be very western, very gay, and very famous, and you just want us to waltz off this plane into the nexus of the middle-eastern conflict. That’s what you’re asking me to do right now?” Charlotte clarified quite seriously. “Do you have a pre-made target that you want to stick on our backs or should we stop off at the gift shop to get some red paint?”

The aisles of the plane started to thin and empty out as the passengers dispersed into the arrival gate. It left them in an awkward predicament. The few other people onboard—namely, the air hostesses—beamed perfect lipstick smiles and gestured towards the aircraft exit, encouraging them to disembark, becoming more uncomfortable by the second as the couple in Row 42 continued their argument.

“I have been to places like this before and it’s not as scary as you think it is. We’re in the city, the touristy bit. And so long as we don’t go looking for trouble then trouble won’t come looking for us,” Becky urged and stood up from the seat, growing more flustered by the second. “Now, can you please move?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Charlotte furrowed into a look of disbelief. “Name one place you’ve been too that is nearly as dangerous as Lebanon. Please, I’ll wait.” She raised her hands and shrugged.

“I am literally from Dublin,” Becky glowered.

“Don’t do that. You don’t get to bring up The Troubles right now. It’s not the same thing—”

“Agadir, Lahore, Karachi, Mombai, Belfast, I can reel them off quicker than you can ask where they are.” She wasn’t lying. “Oh, and the United States of America! I’ve been there a fair few times too. Now, can we get off the plane yet?” Becky cocked a look.

“Right,” Charlotte sighed and closed her eyes, remembering suddenly. “You were an air hostess - got it.”

“That word is offensive and outdated, we prefer the term cabin crew,” Becky nibbled with irritation.

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t realise it was a racial epithet.”

“Right that is it!” Her wife burst and climbed across her lap, a knee jamming and rattling the small dinner tray as she clambered over and spilled into the aisle. “I am going to go and get in line for customs and you can come and join me when you’re finished with your temper tantrum!” Becky straightened her jacket and stormed down the galley.

…

To her surprise, the airport was modern, was metropolitan, was clean and lingering with the smell of expensive perfume from the designer duty-free stores that were dotted along the route towards customs and baggage.

When the pilot announced that the aircraft was being diverted to Beirut Rafic-Hariri Airport, Charlotte had imagined cratered buildings; taliban militants; gunfire whizzing overhead; a wartorn village with goats roaming free; children in dusty mismatching flip-flops that she would have to bribe to send SOS messages to the American embassy.

She glanced around the light airy airport terminal in disbelief as businessmen in sharp suits dodged around her. This… was not what she had in mind.

The relief was mind blowing.

The film reel of her worst case scenario was collated from movies and news coverage she had seen concerning the situation in the middle-east, or rather, places that were definitely not Beirut if the advertisements for their Gucci and Prada stores were anything to go by, Helmand Province and the Gaza Strip were certainly lacking in that department after all. Charlotte sighed and slunked through the arrivals terminal in search of her wife, well aware that she may have possibly, slightly, potentially, overreacted to the crisis.

She found Becky on a bench. She was eating something that smelled delicious, people watching, content with her solitude. Charlotte cleared her throat and stood straighter.

“Hi,” she said, nonchalantly.

“Try again,” Becky didn’t skip a beat, her tone slightly testy.

“Becky—”

“Again.” Becky insisted. “You know where this needs to start.”

“I’m sorry I embarrassed you in front of the sacred sisterhood of the cabin crew!” Charlotte slumped and sat down beside her.

“And?” The brown eyes landed on her with a weight of expectancy.

“I’m sorry I made a scene.” Charlotte folded her arms. “Can I have a bite of your food now?”

“Not on your life.”

“A little one?” Charlotte sniffed the burrito-looking wrap with lamb spilling out of the end. “Smells good.”

“It’s a shawarma. Ah ah!” Becky hogged it away from her reaching hand. “You refused to get off the plane and made a huge scene less than six hours into our vacation. No shawarma for you.”

“Well since you’re so in love with Lebanon already we should probably go through customs and get the rest of our twenty-four hours here started.” Charlotte snatched her hand back to her lap and pouted slightly.

The food did smell very good after all.

…

“This is a bad idea.” Charlotte began to sweat.

“Don’t you dare.”

“Look!” She hissed and pointed at a large, bold fonted arabic sign that had been courteously translated into English. The crowd shuffled forward toward the border security officers waiting to stamp passports. Charlotte dropped her voice to a hiss, “I have been arrested before, Becky! I can’t enter the Lebanese Republic!”

“And that is why you’re going to smile, and you’re going to breathe, and when he asks if you have a criminal record, you’re definitely not going to mention you were arrested ten years ago—”

“She says, as if it wasn’t my fault!” Charlotte interrupted, displeased by the accusing tone.

“I know,” Becky hushed and patted her arm. “You’re right, it wasn’t your fault but I don’t think they will care about the semantics so let’s just leave it out, alright? You are clean as whistle, never even gone over the speed-limit as far as he’s concerned. Are we clear?”

Charlotte felt tiny beads of sweat form and drip along her brow as a border security agent waved them over. The pair of them walked slowly to the man staring at them from behind the glass. Charlotte fiddled with the strings on the hoodie and pushed her sunglasses up the bridge of her nose, looking guiltier by the moment.

“How long will you be staying in Lebanon?” He took both of their passports.

“Flight DA322,” Charlotte blurted. “We diverted here, for the night. So hopefully not very long.” There was a small, uncomfortable laugh.

“Mhm.” He hmph’d and stamped their passports, glancing at them both. “Go,” he waved them through.

“Wait, that’s it?” Charlotte tilted her head slightly. “No further questions? You’re not going to ask if I have a criminal record?”

“What?” He raised an accusing brow. “Do you have a criminal record?”

“Well… define criminal?”

“No! She’s just… she’s just being silly, sir.” Becky waved her hand dismissively and grabbed Charlotte’s wrist. “She drinks a lot, not to mention the amount of Ambien she took on that flight back there! It’s a wonder she’s still on her feet...” She smiled and tugged Charlotte by the hand through the small gate. “Come on love, I’ve told you before about mixing your sleeping pills… we better find you somewhere to lie down before you say anymore very untrue not accurate things…”

Becky sighed once they were out of earshot, her entire body relaxing into a state of annoyed relief. She blinked a few times and sucked her lips between her teeth, nodding her head, trying her hardest not to be furious because this was no doubt the one vacation they would get this year. They walked through the airport towards the baggage claim while a pensive silence loomed between them.

“Charlotte, I love you, but if you get yourself thrown into a foreign jail I am fucking denying that we’re married,” Becky lowered her voice to a threatening whisper. “I am not going down for you.”

“Considering we’re in a country where homosexuality is illegal go ahead and does both a favour and stick with that plan anyway!” Charlotte hissed quietly in her ear.

…

“Oh, you’re both married!” The hotel receptionist noticed their wedding rings with a smile.

“Yes,” Charlotte forced a tight smile too and drummed her nails on the marble counter, determined to leave it at that.

“Where are your husbands?” The receptionist made pleasant talk and clicked her keyboard in search of an available room.

“Back in the States.” Charlotte wasn’t technically lying, she did have two ex-husbands after all, and for all intents and purposes, she was more than happy for Becky to borrow one of them for the next ten minutes until this ordeal was over. “We’re here on business.” The lie deepened.

“You’re here on business?” The receptionist looked up with a slightly befuddled expression. “But you’ve only asked for one room? Normally when we get people here for business they book ahead, like their own privacy, that sort of thing.” She glanced between them both.

Becky sighed and blinked rapidly. “Reduced expenditures,” she explained casually with a wave of her hand. “Our boss is a bit of a cheapskate so I’m stuck with this one for the night.”

“What is it you both do?” The receptionist blinked, her smile unwavering, the questions refusing to end.

Charlotte began to feel like maybe she was growing suspicious.

“We’re Avon representatives.” She thought on her feet.

Becky hid her mouth behind a magazine and whispered beneath her breath, “That was what you came up with?” She gave Charlotte a look. “Avon representatives?” There was a mocking nod.

“She’s my trainee.” Charlotte beamed a bright smile and stuck to the story.

…

“Would you look at the view!” Becky gasped and stuck her hands on her hips. “Oh, I could live here. I could honestly live here!” She shook her head in awestruck disbelief.

“This is where you want to live, Becky? The middle of Beirut?” It was said pointedly. Charlotte raised an exasperated eyebrow and visibly deflated with relief now the door was closed and they were in private. “I can’t with you.” She stuck out her hand and shook her head.

“Oh somebody is just grumpy because they haven’t eaten yet!” Becky pished and drew back the curtains for a better view of the city.

Charlotte opened her mouth to protest but then her stomach grumbled, she knitted her lips together and rolled her eyes at the betrayal of her gut. Truth be told, she was absolutely starving. There was a room-service menu sat on the desk and so she picked it up and gave it the once over, desperate for a reason not to answer her wife’s abundant chirpiness.

Becky turned around, her eyes widening at the menu in hand.

“We are not ordering room service, Charlotte!” Becky snapped with abject horror in her eyes. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Have you lost your mind?”

“I know,” Charlotte relented and was thankful for a bit of common ground. “I’m nervous too but this hotel is rated five stars on TripAdvisor and it was the nicest one I could find on the Marriott app. The kitchen has to be up to code—”

“You’re unbelievable.” Becky closed her eyes.

“Honey, I have Immodium in my purse we will be fine—”

“I’m not saying no to room service because I’m worried about the kitchen! I’m saying no to room service because we are clearly going out tonight for dinner!” Becky opened her eyes and pointed to the city landscape outside. “Don’t you want to enjoy our vacation?”

“This was not the vacation I signed up for!” Charlotte’s eyes widened defensively.

“Well I am the wife you signed up for and I am telling you to change your outfit because we’re going out for dinner tonight!”

“God I hate you,” Charlotte half complained.

“Well why don’t you just go ahead and file a complaint with HR when we get back to Avon headquarters!” Becky nodded emphatically and stormed to the bathroom.

Charlotte turned her head and followed Becky with her eyes. “We could save water if we showered together—”

“Don’t even try your luck.” Becky put an immediate halt to it.

…

Beirut, as it turned out, was a clash of cosmopolitan and Ottoman architecture. It was vibrant, it was friendly, it was teeming with heat and the loud chatter of tourists and locals colliding together the closer they got to the harbour. The food was also ridiculously good. So much so that Charlotte went for a starter, main, and dessert too. An aperitif between each course to boot. Becky just stared at her the entire time with a ‘told you so’ type smirk while the top button of her high waisted slacks was let out.

“Here’s to us,” Becky raised a glass of champagne when the meal was cleared. “All things said and done, I’d say this is a great start to our vacation.” She looked towards the glimmering evening sea beyond the terrace.

“We’ve been to worse places, sure,” Charlotte managed a small concession as she clinked her wife’s glass. “You know,” she stopped and swallowed, unsure of how to say it without Becky gloating at the change of disposition. “If we have time tomorrow maybe we could go and see those rocks the cab driver mentioned?”

“Raouche? You want to visit Raouche tomorrow morning before the bus comes?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, she changes her tune quickly.”

“If you’re going to be like that…” Charlotte leaned back in her chair and glanced to the water, then to the bustling kitchen, at everything and anything other than her wife.

“I’m just playing.” Becky reached over and put her hand over Charlotte’s knuckles, her beaming white teeth on show with the emphaticness of her smile. “We can go see the rocks tomorrow, bright and early.”

“Breakfast too?” Charlotte lifted a brow.

“Pushing it but sure, why not?”

“Well alright,” Charlotte sighed and played with Becky’s thumb. “Do you want to go back to the hotel and commit a private liberty crime with me as judged by the Lebanese Republic?” She lifted a playful eyebrow.

“Well when you put it like that…”

…

Hans Zimmer - You’re So Cool - Song To Set The Scene

Outside, the cicadas hummed on the wind of the evening air, and the breeze drifted the curtains and kept the room cool and airy. Charlotte leaned back against the headboard of one of the twin beds in the room and rubbed her sleepy head, unsure she had the energy to kick off her trousers now the food was beginning to settle.

The buzzing of the bathroom light and fan whirred, along with the occasional thump of Becky’s footsteps as the Irish woman brushed her teeth and got ready for bed. Charlotte sighed into the peacefulness of it and fiddled with her phone. The bathroom door unlocked and creaked open. Charlotte peered up, her eyes widening at the sight.

The black lingerie was nearly see through, it clung to Becky’s soft muscular frame in all the best ways possible. Her long taut legs were clad with the thin fabric of dark suspenders, her breasts cradled in the flimsy material of a bralet that was trying its hardest to contain her tan cleavage, her bright ginger hair was coiffed and falling behind each shoulder blade. Becky just stood there and smiled, well aware that she was the type of meal her wife would always be hungry for no matter how well satiated her appetite.

“Well hello to you too,” Charlotte licked her lips nervously.

“Avon calling,” Becky whispered and strolled over. “You want to push these beds together so I have more room to show you our Summer collection?” She danced a hand up and over her suspender belt. “So many new products to show you, so little time.”

“Oh god.” Charlotte’s eyes widened.

“Oh yeah,” Becky nodded with a mischievous smirk. “We’re doing this.”

Charlotte damn near flew off the sheets to wrestle the beds together.

“The greatest wife, the best wife ever, so weird, so perfect,” she mumbled to herself and wiped her sweating brow as the beds were pressed against one another. “You never realise just how in the mood you are for weird roleplay sex until it creeps up on you out of nowhere.” She nodded seriously.

She could tell Becky was trying to stifle laughter, which only somehow made the whole affair more perfect. Charlotte watched her saunter over, her jaw nearly dropping at the sight of it, teeth sitting on the edges of one another with excitement as two dainty hands slipped over each shoulder and pushed her backwards onto the double bed they had fashioned.

“Do you like my lipstick?” Becky whispered and crawled on top of her until she was sat on Charlotte’s hips. “Does the shade suite me?” She puckered up and kissed her cheek.

“What’s the colour called?” Charlotte choked out the words and played along as her wife’s fingers awoke goosebumps along her biceps.

Becky stopped and smirked again. “It’s called Frustrated Wife.” The laughter was forcefully withheld behind her tight lips and she raised a suggestive eyebrow. “We also have a sister shade called Criminal Lesbian Activity...” Becky slipped a hand down Charlotte’s belly towards her pant zipper. “I’m just dying to show it to you, Mrs Flair.”

“Those seem like really off brand names for Avon shades?” Charlotte’s eyebrows did the thing.

“Shut up.”

“It’s just Frustrated Wife and Criminal Lesbian Activity don’t really seem like names for Avon colours you know? Maybe if we were doing an Urban Decay roleplay—”

“I said shut up,” Becky leaned forward and dropped her voice to a sultry whisper. “You’re ruining this.” She nibbled her earlobe. “You’re ruining it so bad.” A little giggle broke.

“Well alright.” Charlotte conceded as her pants were pulled off her hips. “So… how long have you been working for Avon? Are you… unionised?” She tried her hardest to get back into it.

“Mrs Flair!” Becky shot up with a playful gasp, her eyes widening a bit. “I have no idea how to respond to that piss-poor attempt at dirty talk and so I’m going to pretend it was a filthy euphemism!” She sing-songed slightly, burying herself forward until they were giggling nose to nose.

“Thank you for saving me,” Charlotte whispered and tucked her hands around the back of her wife’s thighs, sighing in relief. She adjusted Becky a bit and pulled her closer until they were tangled and warm, giggling slightly into the heat of each other like two happy idiots.

“Always,” Becky pecked her neck and slung her arms around the back of her shoulders. “You could never really ruin it if you tried.”

“So, given all of your expertise and many years of training,” Charlotte cleared her throat and felt her lips tug into a blushing smirk. “What kind of makeup do you think I should wear?” She leaned forward with an expectant stare.

Becky sighed and smiled. She grabbed Charlotte’s chin softly, her brown eyes glimmering with playfulness as she appraised the woman stuck between her finger and thumb. Finally, she let go of Charlotte’s chin and traced her finger down the slope of her nose, satisfied.

“Confidence is the sexiest thing a woman can wear.” Becky pushed a rope of blonde hair behind Charlotte’s ear. “And you have tons of it, baby, so I think you should wear that and nothing else.” Her hand slipped around Charlotte’s spine towards the bra strap.

“Well aren’t you smooth.”

“They teach it at Avon school, it’s all part of the sales pitch.”

“You must really sell a lot of lipstick.”

“I don’t get many returns or complaints, you’re quite correct.”

To Charlotte, the woman in her lap was insane. But the slackened smile, the way her eyes grew bigger when she met her eyes, the mischievous wriggle of her lips, the everything, just made her smile back.

Still smiling, she twisted their positions and put the troublemaker on her spine where she belonged. It was one of her favourite things to do truth be told, whether it be professional and violent or… not so professional or violent. The first time they slept together she had expected it would crumble mountains, make the earth stop on its axis, but it was nothing like that. It was imperfect, silly even, and just like that it became the favourite most looked forward to part of her day.

“Nothing gets me going like when you’re in a stupid mood,” Charlotte chuckled as she kissed and nibbled.

“Does this make your top five?” Becky asked seriously.

“Oh, my top two for sure.” Charlotte nodded enthusiastically and slipped one of her black bra straps over the creamy ball of her shoulder. “Maybe even number one, the night’s still young.” She nibbled her collarbone.

“Number one, huh?” Becky raised a surprised brow. “I thought the Paris Situation was your favourite? You know I hate it when you go on tour without me...” She pouted slightly and played with the long blonde hair that framed Charlotte’s face. “Though, creative problems mean creative solutions.”

“We could have just had phone sex.” Charlotte whined. “You didn’t need to put a voodoo doll that looked like you in my luggage with a note to finger it every night.”

“Mmm, but I did though.” Becky smirked, utterly pleased with herself.

“You did,” Charlotte agreed and rolled her eyes, seeing the funny side. “You wanna let me get in these panties yet or are you planning on laying here all night giving me the memoriam reel of our sex life? Because I want you to scream my name so loud tonight the police throw us in jail and Stonewall have to campaign for our release… it would be a hell of a vacation story.” Charlotte lifted a serious brow.

“Proceed.” Becky lifted a leg and popped one of the tiny clasps on her suspenders.

It was the strangest, nerdiest sense of arousal. One moment they were joking around and the next Becky’s slender leg was in the air with that barely-there lingerie popping open like a scene from the Moulin Rouge. Her wife would always be capable of doing that to her, Charlotte had long since given up the belief she even had the modicum of will power necessary to deny it — war zone or no war zone.

Charlotte dove forward and didn’t spare the lingerie, her hands tugging and making a meal of it as she sucked and nibbled the underside of her wife’s taut jaw. It earned little throttled gasps, pleased noises, happy moans, small giggles, everything and nothing. When slender nimble fingers creeped around and felt along the dips of her back muscles she knew the kind of mood her wife was in, the type where she wanted to be thrown around and made sore with unhinged arousal. Charlotte was more than happy to oblige.

“Shit!” Becky gasped, and not in a good way.

The twin beds parted like the red sea and their bodies made an instant cracking thud against the marble floor. Luckily, Becky’s body broke the fall and so Charlotte was relatively unscathed. The same couldn’t be said for the troublemaker.

“Oh Jesus Christ,” Becky managed quite calmly and raised her sidebent knuckles. “Well I think I went and dislocated some of my fingers, that’s all we need!” She rolled her eyes at the mild inconvenience.

Charlotte nearly vomited.

“You think!? You think!?!?” Charlotte chided with wide eyes and couldn’t snatch her stare away from the injury. “Your middle finger is on the wrong way round, Becky! We need to go to the hospital!!” She pointed, horrified.

“Well there’s no need to be a drama queen about it,” Becky said quietly.

“We’re going to the emergency room.”

“For a few dislocated fingers?” Becky raised and incredulous brow. “You do know the emergency room is for emergencies only, right?” Becky pushed out her mangled hand. “Just give them a hard tug and I’ll be right as rain. I can’t promise I’ll be able to finger you tonight but I’ll give it a good go—”

“Your fingers look like fucking Crunchy Cheetos. If you think you’re ever putting them inside me again...” She hid her face away so she wouldn’t have to look at them. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to have sex again.” Charlotte swallowed hard.

“Oh for goodness sake,” Becky clambered up with a roll of her eyes as if Charlotte was being entirely unreasonable. She breezed straight past her and walked out of the room. “I’m going to reset and splint my fingers in the bathroom and when I come out you better be ready to kiss me where it counts. First day of our holiday and you’ve got your knickers in a twist over a few twisted fingers, shame of my bloody life!” She pointed one of her mangled fingers accusingly, albeit the finger was bent sideways and so it pointed off towards the drawers.

…

“I’m fine,” Becky slurred the attempt at trying to sound decisive as her wife shouldered her towards the plane they were now running slightly late for.

“You woke up crying three times. I had to wander the streets of Beirut at four this morning to find a pharmacy willing to sell me painkillers using traveller’s cheques. You are not fine. We are not fine. This is not fine.” Charlotte reminded, glancing at the bruised splinted fingers that were now straight and swollen.

“Traveller’s cheques.” Becky giggled to herself under her breath. “You’re such an old lady.”

“Well now you’re just being rude,” Charlotte couldn’t help but smirk.

“You still love me?”

“More than the air I breathe,” Charlotte didn’t skip a beat as the short troublemaker hopped and clutched at her arm.

“All things said and done I think this might be the best trip of my life so far,” Becky hmph’d tiredly and pressed her sleepy face against Charlotte’s arm as the line for the flight slowly came to a stop. “Here, with you, right now.”

“Relax,” Charlotte smirked and shook her head.

“I could be in a warzone and still have the best time so long as I was with my wife.”

“Becky—”

“I know, don’t spoil it.”

“Well alright,” Charlotte blinked and craned down to kiss the troublemaker’s temple. “Thank you for never letting me be annoyed for too long.” They shuffled forward towards the plane doors.

“You try so hard,” Becky pouted and patted her belly.

“You work me like a pro.” Charlotte eyeballed her seriously.

“Well, the Avon sales training is very thorough.”

“Excuse me?” Charlotte blushed and feigned ignorance.

Becky peered up at her mischievously. “You heard me,” she whispered, glancing away with a knowing smirk.

[noeliaunwin343]

Hassle Free Car Leasing

Another bad thing is that you really do not know might help to prevent are grabbing. You might buy a jem with your Used Volvo; you may also get a painful best auto lease deals driven and highly neglected car. The simple truth is that discussion. Unless the handy with cars, you will want to note of this before you purchase anything.

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[zanytimetravelenthusiast-blog]

MugJam Review Discount And Large Bonus

MugJam Evaluation - Are you searching for even more knowleadge regarding MugJam? Please go through my straightforward review about it before choosing to review the weak points and staminas of it. If you purchase MugJam through my link, you will certainly obtain special as well as appealing incentive packages. I constantly upgrade my rewards day-to-day.

Introducing MugJam

HOW TO CREATE POWERFUL VIDEO CLIP MATERIAL

Currently you have actually decided to give video clip a go, it's time to consider exactly how to develop a video clip that creates genuine influence which suggests generating powerful web content.

The initial step is to take a seat and exercise what you want the video to accomplish. 'More sales' is rather evident but how is this going to take place? A great deal of the responses will certainly rely on the sort of product or service you are selling.

If MugJam is an affordable customer product, after that a stylish industrial style ending with a contact us to action might be the most suitable. For instance, right here's a computer animated video we generated for a low cost retail stuffed product. On the other hand, a longer term sales cycle will certainly require a 'video clip with substance'.

This might consist of a 'case study' led technique using client reviews and also personal meetings with essential members of staff. For instance once you have chosen the video's 'objective'-- to explain, delight, amuse etc, then it's time to exercise its structure. Job in reverse as well as decide what activity you desire the customer to take. To telephone you, visit your website or find out more regarding what you do.

After that choose exactly how the video clip will certainly be made use of, as this will certainly have a bearing on its content and also style. Is it mosting likely to appear on your website as an 'intro' to the company or a customer testimony that can be downloaded and install on your cellular phone or tablet computer?

An expert video clip business will assist you create a 'feel' for your video clip as well as deal advice on its framework but there is absolutely nothing to stop you doing it yourself (keep an eye out for our future blog site on 'DIY Video'). Whichever route you take, it's worth producing a storyboard-- equally as they do when making a feature film.

A storyboard is equally as MugJam sounds, a visual representation (either created online or pen and paper) of how your video will look-- scene by scene. A collection of illustrations with notes that clarify what you want to attain from your video and also the filming sequence. Developing a storyboard will likewise aid you create a manuscript as well as make your editing less complicated.

This preliminary stage takes time yet will certainly conserve time in the future, particularly if you include cam angles as well as shift shots. It is additionally useful when it concerns sharing your suggestions with others-- especially if you are filming on their properties.

Video clip is all about relationships, specifically between the audience as well as the subject matter and this is possibly the first difficulty that many Services face. How to get the message throughout. Looking at others' video clips aids which is why professional video producers will produce a 'mood reel' to assist clients choose what they such as and a lot more notably not like. If you are doing it yourself, a few evening's trawling through (appropriate-- be rigorous with search phrases) YouTube video footage can assist.

In addition to having a clear objective to your video clip (what do you intend to achieve?) and creating a storyboard (to aid develop the framework), you need to consider the technical facet. Anyone with a smart device can now produce HD high quality video. However, whether anyone will certainly intend to sit down as well as enjoy your 'efforts' is totally down to your MugJam skill and proficiency. A specialist video clip business has the proficiency, experience as well as facilities to transform your ideas into a sleek display-- all wrapped up with the wow factor.

Having stated that, doing it on your own is a fantastic means of 'testing the water' as well as in a future blog site we will share some techniques of the trade to assist you create your own DIY Video.

Fortay Media expert video clip begins at just ₤ 495 (+VAT) Discover MiVi here.

MugJam Evaluation & Review

Vendor: Todd Gross

Item: MugJam

Launch Day: 2019-Nov-11

Introduce Time: 11:00 EST

Front-End Cost: $37

Sales Web page: https://www.socialleadfreak.com/mugjam-review/

Specific Niche: Video Clip Advertising And Marketing

What Is MugJam?

Revolutionary Modern Technology That Allows You Cast Yourself As A Specialist Spokesperson Without Getting On Camera.

Effective Video Clip Developer Instilled With AI Develops Hyper-Realistic 3D Chatting Avatars That Look Precisely Like You From A Single Image!

The Very First App That Develops 3D Chatting Avatars Of Any Type Of Face On The Planet. Instantly. In Secs.

MugJam Testimonial - Features & Benefits

3D Character Designer

The first ever Character Developer that can create Life-Like Speaking Character of any person in the world. Each produced character has unique facial geometry.

Template-Based Video Clip Maker

Professional and Customized Done For You Templates That Allowed's You Develop Videos Utilizing Your Avatars Promptly.

Usage Your Very Own Video clips

Include Your Avatars In Addition To Your Existing Video clips. Characters will instantly lip-sync to your video's audio.

10+ Predefined Avatars

We hired specialist models to create top quality avatars using MugJam. Users obtain endless use certificate with these avatars.

8 Theme Categories

One of the most diverse collection of design templates we've generated up until now. Categories ranging from Local Company, Advertisements, Quotes and also many more ...

50+ Predefined Templates

These one-of-a-kind layouts are custom made from the ground up to fit the characters completely by our group of animation specialists.

Auto Lip-Sync

All Avatars created with MugJam can lip-sync with any kind of audio. Mouth movements are developed to be as realistic as feasible.

Natural Eye + Teeth

MugJam creates incredibly sensible Eyes as well as Teeth for each Character. To make characters life-like, the avatars will also take a look around arbitrarily.

Natural Head Turns

The Avatars look and also reverse randomly which imitates the all-natural speaking movements of a specialist speaker.

Green Screen Videos

Most likely the first time ever before, you can export your chatting avatars with green display history. This permits you to use them within any other applications.

Usage Your Own Voice

Videotape your own voice within the application or publish a prefabricated voiceover to the application and also the avatars will automatically lip-sync to it.

Boosted Text-To-Speech

This is the finest quality as well as natural appearing Text To Speech ever before. We additionally let you regulate the voice Pitch, Speed and lots more ...

HD Result

Every video produced making use of MugJam is exported in 1080P.

Sensible Clothes Cloner

MugJam also produces comparable garments for your Character that you are putting on in the selfie.

Several Languages

MugJam collaborates with almost every language. Our Design templates along with Text to Speech supports a wide variety of languages.

1 Product. 4 Breakthroughs

MugJam is the result of a super-smart team of programmers as well as developers who have actually functioned tirelessly for more than a year to produce 4 enormous

Groundbreaking Avatar Developer

The AI behind this modern technology learns the face geometry of the face to produce a super-realistic talking 3d version of the person. This is the type of innovation you will not find somewhere else on the internet.

Natural Facial Qualities

We've conquered some of one of the most tough facets of creating automated 3d designs when it pertains to human beings. This includes realistic eyes, teeth, head turns and clothing that precisely matches with the individual in the selfie. Item picture

Sensational Personalized Design Templates

Our group of computer animation specialists has invested months creating top quality themes for almost every classification you could imagine. These custom made templates accurately fit the characters and collaborate with them harmoniously. Item picture

Your Very own Videos

For the very first time, users can publish their existing video clips and also add talking characters on top of it. Customers can also control the size and also setting of the characters that immediately lip-syncs with the sound within the video.

Develop Not 1 However 3 Types of Video clips. Creativity is Your Only Limitation ...

Theme Based Video

Create magnificent video clips using our specialist layouts developed by our team of computer animation specialists as well as cast yourself as the central character. We have possibly one of the most diverse collection of design templates you have actually ever seen.

Environment-friendly Screen Video

Do not such as to restrict on your own with prefabricated layouts? We've obtained you covered. You can render your talking avatar with an environment-friendly display background. Import this environment-friendly screen chatting character right into any third-party video clip editing applications like After Effects or Camtasia.

Character On Your Existing Videos

Want to add Avatars on top of your existing videos? You definitely can. This is a powerful means to get your face before your target markets without getting on cam. Works ideal for the tutorial, pc gaming, and also training video clips.

Verdict

"It's A Good deal. Should I Spend Today?"

Not just are you getting accessibility to MugJam for the very best price ever before provided, however also You're investing completely without risk. MugJam includes a 30-day Refund Warranty Policy. When you select MugJam, your fulfillment is ensured. If you are not totally satisfied with it for any factor within the very first 30 days, you're qualified to a full reimbursement-- no doubt asked. You have actually obtained absolutely nothing to lose! What Are You Waiting for? Try It today and get The Adhering to Benefit Now!

Ps: If you have any inquiries you intend to ask me about MugJam or you simply intend to present your feelings and ideas concerning it. Please do not hesitate to relay your comments, tips or corrections., I will certainly answer you completely and attentively. Thanks!

[twstechnology-blog]

Step by Step guide for writing amazing blogs as beginners

Blogging seems very easy for people who don’t write blogs, but it isn’t that easy. If you are a blogger and you write blogs for some particular topics then it might be easy for you to collect content but a real blogger is the one who can write an interesting blog even on a boring topic. No wonder still there are many bloggers in online marketing and their number is increasing rapidly.

If you also want to join the gang of bloggers and you think you have the ability to write some good content then all you need is to learn some basic tips before you start writing.

I have met many new bloggers the problem they face is that they aren’t aware of how to provide a structure to a blog, they have content and amazing information to share but they are not presentable, so I decided to write a blog where I will be providing you with some basics of writing blogs and become a pro blogger. One can’t become Bruce Lee in a day but continuous practice and determination can prepare you to defence well!

We will provide you with the key to unlocking the concept of writing great blogs.

Follow our step by step guide to start today.

Step 1: Title of your blog post should be amazing! Once you’re settled down and decide the genre in which you will be writing your article the first thing is to have an attractive title. You can use words like secrets, guide or some number like top 10 or best ways.

Click Here to get amazing ideas for writing good titles.

Step 2: Use media to attract visitors Using of images, videos, info graphics and podcasts can help your visitor to know more about your content not only this it creates more interest in the mind of reader because of which they spend greater time on your blog.

If you are a beginner you can use images from pixel, pixabay etc. Sites for free commercial videos pixel video, pixabay video etc.

Step 3: Address your readers you may be wondering how to address the readers addressing here means that you need to write your blog in a way that it seems like you are answering their questions.

Using the word “you” and “I” make it easier for them to feel connected to the blog while reading it.

You can easily see the number of you, I have used in this particular blog because at the end I am writing this all for you only! Step 4: Master your content your content is your strength you can attract readers by your title but they will read your blog only if it is worth reading.

You should include all sources of information that can help your article to be more authentic also it builds an interest in the mind of the reader and then they spend more time on your blog.

Step 5: Provide solutions through your blog Most of the time people go to blogs to get some information and if your blog already has the questions and answers ready for them then they will definitely be more satisfied.

One more benefit of answering questions is that your blog word limit is extended which means that now the reader will spend more time in reading your blog.

The best example of this is the blog written by Neil Patel

“Speaking of quality content, Neil Patel did A/B testing on his site and found that his homepage with 1,292 words led to more leads — better leads — than a second webpage with only 488 words. Why? The content on his page answered questions that were commonly asked from customers. He was already solving their problems before they even bought his product! The word count wasn’t the deciding factor as much as what was actually being said.”

Step 6: Authenticated data

When you are providing information on a blog you should make sure that the information provided by you is genuine not everything on the internet is correct and sometimes even quoting a sentence from a website can be harmful.

Avoid gathering data from Wikipedia there are numerous websites that are known in the market and collecting data from them. Now I will share you a quick checklist that I found on Smartblogger, I think this is an awesome checklist provided by Smartblogger

Take a Knife to It: Slash all unnecessary words, sentences, paragraphs, stories, etc. Include only what is absolutely essential to convey your message. Nothing more.

Motivate, Don’t Lecture: Tweak any statements that hint of being the condescending professor. Make readers feel like you’re on their side and dedicated to their success (because you are).

Add Emotion: Infuse your writing with passion, energy and enthusiasm. If you’re bored by your topic, readers will be too.

Make it Easy on the Eye: Break up any large paragraphs (2–5 sentences maximum is your goal) and run-on sentences.

Break it Down: Clarify overly complicated wording. If you can’t say it simply, don’t write it. You don’t want to confuse your readers.

Speak Their Language: Add examples or metaphors to make complex ideas feel more tangible and easier to digest.

Check Yourself: Remove any contradictory statements or repetitive ideas (trust me, they’re there).

Don’t Yo-Yo: Ensure each sentence, paragraph and section drives the post forward toward the destination promised by the headline (no side routes or backtracking).

Be Smooth: Make each sentence and paragraph flow seamlessly into the next. Each sentence should be completely dependent on the ones before and after it or the transitions will feel choppy.

Avoid Sharp Turns: Adjust any abrupt changes in topic. They’re jarring to readers.

Keep It Real: Don’t mimic styles that don’t come naturally to you. The more you write, the more you’ll find your authentic writing voice.

Add Highlights: Use bold and italics to add stress where appropriate (but do so sparingly).

Shoot Bullets: Use bullet points to group related ideas and make them more digestible.

Spark the Senses: Be specific and concrete (describe things readers can see, feel, hear, smell or taste). Avoid abstract statements.

Be Firm: Avoid words like “might,” “may,” “possibly” and “perhaps” when delivering your advice.

Respect Nature: Put things in their natural order (e.g., past to present, young to old, small to large, breakfast to dinner, etc.)

Be Consistent: Make sure all points in a list belong to the same category; a list of steps should only list steps, a list of things should only list things, etc. This might sound like common sense, but this rule gets broken often.

Don’t Be Lazy: Ensure all the necessary information is contained within the post itself. (External links should only provide supplemental information. A reader shouldn’t have to click a link to comprehend your post.)

Kill the Weak: Eliminate weak and flabby words. Replace weak verbs (e.g., “she went”) with more concrete, visceral verbs (“she walked”), replace passive voice (e.g., “he was pushing”) with active voice (e.g., “he pushed”) and replace weak adjectives (e.g., “good”) with strong adjectives (e.g., “wonderful”).

Feel the Beat: Be mindful of the pace and rhythm of each section. Speed things up or add some punch with crisp, short sentences. Slow things down with longer explanations. Good writing uses both.

Do the Obvious: Fix any spelling or grammar mistakes (check out tools like Grammarly and Hemingway App).

Be Honest: Give credit where due.

For becoming a good blogger you need to do only one thing and that is to keep writing and reading the more you write the better you become.

By following all of the above-mentioned points you will definitely get success in digital marketing company. If you have any more ideas please provide your feedback in comments.

[rafi1228]

Master JavaScript with the most complete JavaScript course on market! 1st step to learn JS – React, Angular or Vue JS

What you’ll learn

You will go all the way from JavaScript beginner to advanced JavaScript developer.

You will gain a deep and true understanding of how JavaScript works behind the scenes.

You will be able to debug your code and understand other developer’s code.

You will understand and use complex features like the ‘this’ keyword, function constructors, prototype, inheritance, first-class functions, closures, and more.

You will learn how to organize and structure your code using modules and functions. Because coding is not just writing code, it’s also thinking about your code!

Take the w3 Schools, Upwork or Freelancer Javascript certification

Requirements

No coding experience is needed to take this course! We will start from the basics

All you need to get started with JavaScript is a computer, a browser (most of the exercises are on JSBIN) and a text editor. We will set these up in the course.

A basic understanding of HTML and CSS is a plus, but it’s not a must!

Also, wherever there is anything related to HTML/CSS, We will cover needed details in those sections. If you still have a question,you can ask it in the Q&A section.

Description

*** Brand New Course Updated in Septemper 2017 ***

*** More than 38,000 students. Students from over 167 countries. 5 star ratings and you can see what other students have to say in the review section. Stop Thinking! Take the course Now! ***

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Very thorough lectures on the basics of Javascript. The instructor is very knowledgable on this subject and is quick to respond to any questions asked. A great place to start if you are new to the world of Javascript.

— Jason Arnold

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Enjoyed the course very much. The coding exercises were great. Having exercises to work on and figure out makes learning so much more interesting. The lectures were excellent and the lecture materials were very helpful. The instructor was responsive in the Q&A and all the course material worked like a charm. I would definitely take another course by this instructor. Thanks for a great experience.

— Leann Ukena

Ace JavaScript with the most entire JavaScript course available! 

Would you like to learn the number #1 programming dialect that powers the web? 

Is it accurate to say that you are sick of squandering your time and cash on irregular youtube videos or JavaScript courses that are either excessively basic, or excessively troublesome, making it impossible, making it impossible to take after?

On the other hand do you battle to profoundly comprehend and utilize JavaScript in genuine projects?

In the event that your answer is a major YES… At that point this is precisely the course you are searching for!

Keep in mind –

There is no development without reiteration!

So what is the Javascript – From Beginner to Pro course about?

This is a really total JavaScript course, that goes route past what other JavaScript courses out there show you.

I will take you from an entire JavaScript amateur to a propelled developer. You won’t simply learn the JavaScript dialect itself, you will likewise learn how to program. The most effective method to take care of issues. Step by step instructions to structure and sort out code utilizing basic JavaScript designs.

Accompanied me on a trip with the objective of genuinely comprehension the JavaScript dialect. What’s more, I clarify everything in transit with awesome detail!

You will learn “why” something works in JavaScript, not simply “how”. Since in the present day JavaScript universe of today, you require more than simply knowing how something functions. You have to troubleshoot code, you have to comprehend code, you should have the capacity to consider code.

Thus, before the end of the course, you will be a fit JavaScript developer, ready to compose, comprehend and investigate JavaScript code utilizing all the capable components the dialect offers to us.

…

Here is precisely what we cover in this Javascript – From Beginner to Pro course:

• All the JavaScript and programming basics: things like factors, information sorts, boolean rationale, if/else proclamations, circles, capacities, objects, exhibits, and that’s just the beginning.

• Everything you have to know keeping in mind the end goal to pick up a profound comprehension of how JavaScript functions off camera: execution settings, lifting, checking, the “this” catchphrase, and then some.

• How to make JavaScript code associate with webpages: DOM control. Learn how to choose and change webpage components, make new components and handle DOM occasions.

• Complex JavaScript components, for example, work constructors, prototypal legacy, top notch capacities, terminations, the predicament and apply strategies, and then some.

• Learn how to sort out and structure your code utilizing modules and capacities, how to make information security and epitome, and why that is so critical.

• What’s new in the most cutting edge variant of JavaScript: new components of ES6/ES2015.

…

We should now see whether this course is for you. It’s a flawless fit if…

Understudy #1: You need to pick up a profound comprehension of the most well known programming dialect on the planet: JavaScript.

Understudy #2: You have taken other JavaScript courses yet: 1) still don’t generally comprehend JavaScript, or 2) still don’t feel certain to code genuine applications. This course is ideal for you!

Understudy #3: You are keen on utilizing famous libraries/systems like React/React-Native, Angular or Node.js.

Understudy #4: You need to begin with programming by and large: JavaScript is an incredible dialect to learn how to code.

…

Presently it’s your swing to choose. This is the thing that you get:

• Lifetime access to my HD quality videos. No month to month membership. Learn at your own particular pace, at whatever point you need.

• All videos are downloadable. Learn wherever you need, even without a web association!

• Downloadable starter code and last code for every segment.

• My own support in the course Q&A.

Sounds extraordinary? At that point begin learning today by tapping the “Take this course” catch at this moment, and go along with me in the main JavaScript course that you will ever require!

…

What are the prerequisites? 

No coding knowledge is important to take this course! I take you from novice to master!

All you have to begin with JavaScript is a PC, a program (the vast majority of the illustrations are on JSBIN) and a content tool. We will set these up in the course.

An essential comprehension of HTML and CSS is an or more, yet it’s not an unquestionable requirement!

What am I going to get from this Javascript – From Beginner to Pro course? 

Lifetime access to my HD quality videos. No month to month membership. Learn at your own particular pace, at whatever point you need.

You will go the distance from JavaScript learner to cutting edge JavaScript developer.

You will pick up a profound and genuine comprehension of how JavaScript functions in the background.

You will have the capacity to investigate your code and comprehend other developer’s code.

You will comprehend and utilize complex components like the “this” catchphrase, work constructors, prototypal legacy, top of the line capacities, terminations, and the sky is the limit from there.

You will learn how to arrange and structure your code utilizing modules and capacities. Since coding is not simply composing code, it’s additionally contemplating your code!

You will get comfortable with the new components of ES6/ES2015.

You will get my own support in the Q&A.

What is the intended interest group? 

You ought to take this course now on the off chance that you need to pick up a profound comprehension of the most prominent programming dialect on the planet: JavaScript.

You ought to take this course now in the event that you have taken other JavaScript courses however: 1) still don’t generally comprehend JavaScript, or 2) still don’t feel certain to code true applications. This course is ideal for you!

You ought to take this course now in case you’re keen on utilizing mainstream libraries/structures like React, Angular or Node.js.

You ought to take this course now in the event that you need to begin with programming as a rule: JavaScript is an incredible dialect to learn how to code.

You ought to take this course now in the event that you need to plan for a meeting on Javascript. This course will help you get up to speed quicker than most different articles/videos you will discover on the web.

Try not to take this course in the event that you simply need to utilize JavaScript yet would prefer not to know how it really functions. Believe me, I have been there!

What are the necessities? 

No coding knowledge is expected to take this course! We will begin from the nuts and bolts

All you have to begin with JavaScript is a PC, a program (the vast majority of the activities are on JSBIN) and a content tool. We will set these up in the course.

An essential comprehension of HTML and CSS is an or more, yet it’s not an unquestionable requirement!

Additionally, wherever there is anything identified with HTML/CSS, We will cover required subtle elements in those areas. On the off chance that regardless you have a question,you can ask it in the Q&A segment.

What am I going to get from this Javascript – From Beginner to Pro course? 

You will go the distance from JavaScript learner to cutting edge JavaScript developer.

You will pick up a profound and genuine comprehension of how JavaScript functions in the background.

You will have the capacity to investigate your code and comprehend other developer’s code.

You will comprehend and utilize complex elements like the “this” watchword, work constructors, model, legacy, top of the line capacities, terminations, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

You will learn how to arrange and structure your code utilizing modules and capacities. Since coding is not simply composing code, it’s likewise considering your code!

You will get comfortable with the new components of ES6/ES2015.

Take the w3 Schools, Upwork or Freelancer Javascript affirmation

Who this course is for:

You should take this course now if you want to gain a deep understanding of the most popular programming language in the world: JavaScript.

You should take this course now if you have taken other JavaScript courses but: 1) still don’t really understand JavaScript, or 2) still don’t feel confident to code real-world apps. This course is perfect for you!

You should take this course now if you’re interested in using popular libraries/frameworks like React, Angular or Node.js.

You should take this course now if you want to get started with programming in general: JavaScript is a great language to learn how to code.

You should take this course now if you have to prepare for an interview on Javascript. This course will help you get up to speed faster than most other articles/videos you will find on the internet.

Created by Abhay Talreja Last updated 9/2017 English English [Auto-generated]

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The post Javascript – From Beginner to Pro-Build real world JS apps appeared first on Free Course Lab.

[anonarat]

Part 1 of my thoughts on the Black Eagles route of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. This will cover overall story, mechanics and gameplay. The second part will cover the Black Eagles characters and Shamir.

I’ll start with the story side of things. As a whole, the story was... okay. Playing Black Eagles, I really feel as though the whole subplot about Those Who Slither in the Dark should have been cut out. Honestly, the first 9 chapters feel like a prologue to the actual game, and then the second half just feels rushed. I feel as though cutting out 3 chapters from the first half and putting them into the second would have been good.

While I realise that would have probably multiplied the workload by 4 (for each route that I’m currently aware of) they could have taken budget from those anime cutscenes which felt mostly unnecessary in the prologue. Or cut the whole running around the monastery.

Conquest of a country should not take 2 or 3 chapters. The map makes Fodlan feel huge, the story makes it seem small.

It felt as though the story was trying to recapture the magic of Radiant Dawn, and it failed.

Conversely, I think the actual writing and the characters are some of, if not the, best in the series. I enjoyed most of the support conversations, and they felt much more in depth than other titles. While I will go into characters more in the second part, they were all well written and much more rounded out than some recent FE characters.

Onto the actual battles. The very first thing I’ll say is that to even have a chance of feeling like a proper old school Fire Emblem game, you need to play on Hard. Even then, the missions in Part 1 felt easy. The only mission where I had any issues at all was Marianne’s Paralogue, and that was because I hadn’t levelled her at all and didn’t have anyone with Rescue.

It also felt as if the missions in Part 2 were much less innovative than those in Part 1. Most all of them were Rout or Kill the Commander(s), and the defend chapters were really just the same. Early on, with the Battle of the Lion and the Eagle, the game promised us the possibility of three-way battles, and then failed to deliver on that promise. For a game called Three Houses, and the framework for three-way battles implemented, this feels like a massive waste.

There just felt like a bit of a lack of memorable battles overall, with some new mechanic to put a twist on the formula. The one that immediately springs to mind is the battle in Radiant Dawn where a counter goes up every time a unit is killed. You don’t know what it’s for, but you do know it can’t be good.

The final battle was uninspiring. It was mostly just a grind and playing carefully to get through to The Immaculate One. Long, but not difficult. As for The Immaculate One herself? You only had to kill her a mere four times, and you could even make it so she couldn’t counterattack. A couple of Raging Flames from Edelgard made breaking her armour simple, and her hit rate was appalling. She was a pale imitation of a goddess, nothing more.

Finally, let’s talk actual mechanics.

I will start with probably the biggest addition to the series, the running around the monastery and training.

I would love to have seen this whole thing scrapped. It feels as though it’s a speed bump between you and actually playing the game. Without it, more time could have been dedicated to extending each of the routes and making the maps more interesting. While a wise man once said (paraphrasing) that ‘all good JRPGs have a fishing minigame’ I do not want to spend a good chunk of time doing so to grind up my Professor level.

Due to this training mechanic, it also means that you get the number of skill ranks being doubled, skill ranks being tied to recruitment and some of the classing up jankiness. You also have to manage your student’s motivation, adding in another wrinkle.

It is nice being able to talk to all the classmates and NPCs though, with all of them having something to say. Keeping that in while stripping out the rest, such as just before the first assault on Garreg Mach would have improved the whole thing greatly.

If I had to estimate, I would say... maybe 30 hours of the 65 or so that I played was the actual story and Paralogue battles. Maybe a further 10 being story, supports and talking to characters at the monastery. That leaves 25 hours of busywork that could have been cut.

Further to this, Seminars and Resting seem as though they are just a waste of time. Far better to motivate your students with food and gifts or take them onto the field of battle.

The battles themselves are as mechanically solid as one would expect from Fire Emblem, so I won’t delve too deeply into them. Instead I’ll touch on the new/changed mechanics.

Firstly, I love how weapon durability is handled, though it is a tad too easy to repair them. Weapons breaking and becoming near useless without actually being destroyed is nice, and it actually can make units more vulnerable as they won’t automatically switch to their next weapon. Combat arts consuming durability and preventing double attacks is also a really nice trade-off. I found that they were very much a thing I used sometimes, but not frequently, which is how I feel they should be.

Infinite magic uses though... I always felt as though I had more than enough except during the extreme early game. Outside of character’s basic spells, I’d love to see their uses halved. The only spell that I think I ever ran out of consistently was Meteor at 2 uses.

Monsters were sometimes challenging, sometimes aggravating opponents. They worked a lot better when mixed in with normal soldiers as sort of mini-bosses. As an addition to the game though, they weren’t bad. My biggest issue was late game monsters having magic immunity whilst they had their armour up. Having about half your team unable to damage them just feels bad and adds to the less fun aspects of them.

I liked the addition of battalions. They add something for you to fear on enemies and a potent tool in your arsenal. It may have been a bit better if you had more limited numbers though so you don’t just load up all your characters with a battalion. They also help to add a sense of numbers to battles, which you don’t usually get in Fire Emblem.

Now for some miscellany: I would have liked to see the weapon triangle have a proper appearance rather than the breaker skills. I think that the battle UI can be a little confusing, especially in handheld mode. Ballistas and onagers could really do with being more noticeable on the battlefield. More than once I completely missed them even existing on a map until part-way through. Certification exams seem a bit weird and too tied into the weapon rank and teaching mechanics, I’d rather just class up when appropriate. Having Mila’s turnwheel return is great for anti-frustration. Could have done with significantly fewer uses. Maybe 5 at the end game.

As an overall, having only played 2/5ths (I think), I’ll probably put it as my 2nd best Fire Emblem game, grouping Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn as the first. The writing, especially the character/support writing is what really elevates it, along with probably the best battle mechanics of any game in the series.

Three Houses is a great game, but they should have had more ambition, and dedicated more time to the core gameplay than to the running about as a professor. To clarify, by gameplay, I mean more chapters and/or better map design.

[olliejonesmod-blog]

Primeviere Montoise:

After a chilled out week, including a couple of days away from the bike, I was feeling refreshed and motivated ahead of the double header weekend of elite races.

It is pretty fair to say, after realising straight away in the race that I had refound my legs and was out of the slump, I might have got a little bit excited. The first 20km or so of the race went out on a massive dual carrageway which we then turned off and hit the first climb. The parcours was pretty simple. Flat. VERY bergy. Flat. With the realisation my legs felt pretty good, I may have got a bit carried away. The first hour my normalised power was a fair chunk over threshold. Not entirely sure how that happened. But it was good fun! I rode near the front for the first hour, following moves, trying to get away. I was just really enjoying racing again, which I hadn’t done for a while.

There was a couple guys who had sneaked off the front really early on, and I wanted to join them before the race got hilly. Unfortunatly I didn’t manage to get in a group then bunch would let go, so had to settle with entering the hilly section in the bunch. For the first of the climbs I was well positioned. But clearly the big boys were coming out to play now. I hit a 2min power pb just to stay in the bunch up the climb. This meant that as the climbs came thick and fast, all around 1km but all steep, i started drifting back. I would squeeze through the bunch on the descents and slide back up the climbs. But I managed to keep myself in the group and survived until the race got flat again.

By this point one of the big local teams had hit the front to try and bring back a breakaway they had missed, so there wasn’t much to do but sit in a surf the wheels for the final 40km. The roads were flat and with a strong tail wind the pace was high, but the bunch wasn’t close to getting lined out.

Having done 150km of hard racing, annoyingly I started to cramp up in the final, so I couldnt’t contest the bunch sprint. Thinking back maybe I should of just pushed through. But that is easy to say now, not when you have both quads cramped solid.

It was my first signs of decent legs though, so the moral is a fair bit higher than the previous weeks.

check out the ride here

Mont Pujols:

I have to say this is probably the scariest looking parcours i’ve ever seen! I’ll be honest, it wasn’t really for me.

Being the first double header weekend, the legs weren’t quite adjusted to back to back racing yet and I woke up pretty tired.

I don’t want to make any excuses, I was never going to win this race. But on the line, we got gridded in sign on order. And having entered on the day, that meant we were right at the back. And what made this worse, the line was at the top of the climb. So when you are lined up in 70th place, you are half way down the climb. I’m not even exaggerating. The breakaway had gone before I got my feet in the pedals!

The race was just lined out straight away. No hope in hell of being able to move up. Then we hit the descent which was quite technical, which didnt help. That was followed by a long tailwind road, where everyone was fighting for the front to hit the climb first. With a group already gaining time on the bunch the race was fierce. We hit the climb and I started parking pretty fast. A 1.5km climb at 7% but with multiple ramps up at 12% it wasn’t the day for rouleur me.

A grupetto formed, and we rode round a couple laps in the cars, before I dropped off the back on the climb. But then to my surprise, the next time round, they had all abandoned. they were stood at the side of the road. So I just kept riding. And riding. Every lap, more and more riders were stood on the final climb. So I just kept going.

Way down on time, but I finished. 35th. I will take that.

check the ride here

Route des Vignobles:

After some good sensations in training up to this race I was hoping for a good performance. Especially seen as it would be the first TT of the year, even if it was only a 4km prologue. But at least it was something familiar, something I know I can do. And that is always good for the moral.

We got there nice and early so we could drive the course and meet up with the team. It was pretty cool to arrive with the turbos lined up and the chairs out ready to go. We un packed the van and put the TT bikes in the turbos and all set about our own pre-race routines. For me I find this crucial before a time trial effort. You know you are going to the limit, so you have to be in the right place mentally.

It all starts one hour out, once I am in my skinsuit and put on the Rule 28 socks, tighten up my shoes and rub down my legs. Once the headphones go in and the cap goes on, that is it. I won’t talk to anyone till after the TT then, I just focus on getting in the right place and prepared for the effort. Then 40mins to go I get on the turbo and run through my 20min TT warm up. Once off the turbo, the TT helmet goes on and it is off to the start line. All about visualling what is to come.

Down the start ramp, there were a couple of corners out of the HQ, but then onto the main road which was wide open and flat. I got myself up to speed and tucked in, and then it was just all about holding the speed as high as possible over a few very slight rollers. Pushing on and over the climbs to keep the speed high. To be honest it was so short I didn’t even look at my garmin till 1.5km to go. By that point I thought I really had to get a move on. Up the final roller and into the town to cross the line.

It was the first time I had ever ridden a time trial with a radio on and the team car behind. So it was a massive relief to hear I had posted the fastest time by 30 something seconds as I crossed the line.

I hung around at the finish as I knew Oli and Harry wouldn’t be far behind. Apparently the time keeper told Harry before he started I had set the fastest time, to which Harry clarified I was a “chrono specialist”, to which he was asked “en la montees?” and replied merely “no”. Thanks for that…

I was stood with about 20metres to go, and I hear a team car going crazy with the horn, over the crest of the hill comes Harry with Thierry in the team car going mental! He spun the team car around and with a massive smile on his face tells me that we are currently 1,2 with only a couple riders still to go.

We cooled down and headed back to the van, but quickly had to rush back to the podium. We had been confirmed as 1st and 3rd in the standing. Which meant trophies, wine and some jerseys for us!

That afternoon was a 100km hilly road stage. I have to say it was pretty cool rolling to the front of the bunch in a yellow jersey. It soon became clear in the race that a majority of the field seemed more interested in following me than racing the race. My advantage over second place was only 15seconds, maybe 1min over most of the field. Not enough to really shake up the race. But with everyone following me and a breakaway up the road, i’d have to bridge the gap, or tow the bunch with me. And with two teammates up the road I couldn’t do that.

With a big lead out from one of the culture velo boys I tried sending one over the big climb of the day. I got a small gap and started hammering down the descent. But with a strong headwind as we turned back towards the sea, and a 60man peloton content on not letting me do anything I soon got caught. I tried driving over all of the remaining climbs, but there was nothing I could do.

I ended up rolling in with the bunch a couple minutes down on the winning break, losing the jersey, but still sneaking in the top 20 on gc. Not a terrible days work!

  As always…check out my sponsors here!

On The Move! @PedalPotential Primeviere Montoise: After a chilled out week, including a couple of days away from the bike, I was feeling refreshed and motivated ahead of the double header weekend of elite races.

[bikethevote]

2018 Assembly District 45 Candidate: Tricia Robbins Kasson

Candidate campaign page: http://www.tricia4assembly.com/

Tricia Robbins Kasson serves as the Economic Development Director to Councilmember Bob Blumenfield (who Bike The Vote L.A. endorsed in 2017). She served as the point person for Blumenfield for the LA Great Streets Sherman Way project, which sought to improve the pedestrian experience within the Reseda commercial stretch. Her response to Bike The Vote L.A.’s questionnaire shows a deep understanding of the connections between safe streets, quality transit, affordable housing, and greenhouse gas reductions. With her commitments to improve funding for active transportation and to prioritize safety, Robbins Kasson would serve as an effective advocate for safe streets in the Assembly.

Bike The Vote L.A. 2018 Primary Grade: A-

(See below for full candidate questionnaire response)

1. The California Air Resources Board estimates that transportation accounts for 37% of California's annual carbon emissions. What actions would you take as assemblymember to ensure that California creates a more sustainable transportation system?

In California’s urban areas, including the 45th Assembly District, the issue of sustainable transportation is inextricably intertwined with other issues. California’s affordable housing crisis means that working families face long commutes that make transit, walking, or biking infeasible. In the West San Fernando Valley, much of our peak-hour congestion is caused by commutes from Western Ventura County, Simi Valley, and the Antelope and Santa Clarita Valleys. I will work to make it easier to create middle income housing to relieve this kind of transit. Similarly, I will ensure that our schools and community colleges are adequately funded and provide quality education, so parents can send their children to schools within a walkable or bikeable distance.

While most land use decisions are local, as an Assemblymember I will promote land use policies such as those in the Warner Center 2035 plan, which I helped to develop and implement, that focus intensive development in concentrated areas that are well-served by high-quality transit.

For major highway and transit projects, I will work to ensure that Caltrans and other agencies focus on providing access for all transportation modes along the corridor, instead of focusing narrowly on the specific project. For example, in $1B widening of the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass (which did not reduce peak-hour congestion at all), a small portion of that funding should have been used to construct continuous bike lanes through the Sepulveda Pass.

I will work to ensure adequate funding for the Active Transportation Program, and to secure necessary funding for the Los Angeles River Valley Bikeway.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and used transit, biking and walking to get to school, parks, libraries and other places.

2. Cap & trade funds offer a unique opportunity to prioritize sustainable transportation, particularly in low-income neighborhoods negatively affected by pollution caused by cars. Do you support dedicating a portion of cap and trade funds towards the Active Transportation Program to help fund better pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure?

Yes. Unfortunately, the funds generated by the state’s cap and trade program do not begin to meet the demand for worthwhile greenhouse gas reduction projects and programs. Nevertheless, it is unacceptable that, since the beginning of the cap and trade program, only $10 million (out of more than $4 billion) has been dedicated to the Active Transportation Program. Because bicycle infrastructure projects, in particular, often require design modifications during the planning and implementation process, it is important to have funding sources that are better able to accommodate such changes (which federal funding sources often do not). A dedicated source of State funds for active transportation will become increasingly necessary as Republicans in Washington DC seek to roll back or eliminate federal funding for such projects.

3. In Los Angeles, low-income communities of color are disproportionately burdened by the impacts of streets designed primarily for cars, without receiving proportional funding for their mobility modes like walking, biking, and public transit. Would you support legislation to add a ‘complete streets’ policy to SB 1, California’s newly augmented gas tax, to require all street and highway projects to incorporate the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists and transit-dependent communities?

I strongly support complete streets policies, and believe that our overall transportation network must better incorporate the needs of those who walk, bike and use transit. I do not, however, support a blanket policy of requiring every individual project funded from SB1 to be designed to incorporate pedestrian, bicycle or transit facilities. California is a huge state, with widely-diverse transportation needs. In rural, mountainous areas, designing and constructing a highway project to accommodate pedestrians—where there are none—could involve a significant expense with no real benefit, which diverts funds from real needs elsewhere. On a local level, in the 45th District, Victory Boulevard runs across the San Fernando Valley, close to (and often adjacent to) the Orange Line and LA River bike paths, and it would not be a prudent use of funds (or sound policy) to include bicycle facilities should Victory be reconstructed under SB1.

This question strikes a larger point: how we ensure that the infusion of SB1 funds to address long-neglected infrastructure needs is used to create a more inclusive transportation network, and not merely re-create a solely auto-oriented system. The Complete Streets Act  requires local jurisdictions to develop multimodal networks in the circulation element of their General Plans. There are, however, few tools to ensure compliance with those plans. While every project might not need to be a “complete streets” project, every SB1-funded project should comply with the local circulation element. Also, every project on a street with a bus route should include elements to incorporate the needs of transit users. Local jurisdictions should be required to report on their progress toward implementing their complete streets networks, similar to reporting on their progress toward the Regional Housing Needs Assessment.

4. California law regarding the position bicyclists can occupy in a traffic lane is written in a confusing manner. The typical condition – in which the rightmost lane is too narrow for a car and a bicycle to travel safely side-by-side and the bicyclist is thus allowed to use the full lane – is written as an exception rather than the default standard. As a result, despite public information campaigns such as “Every Lane Is A Bike Lane,” there is frequently confusion from the general public and even law enforcement agencies on the legality of bicyclists riding in traffic lanes on California roads. Do you support re-wording traffic law to clarify the right of people on bikes to ride to maximize their visibility and safety?

Yes. California’s traffic safety laws should be written in plain English so they can be easily understood by the public, whether they are driving or bicycling, and easily enforced by law enforcement personnel. On nearly all streets in the 45th Assembly District, the curb lane is too narrow for a motorist and bicyclist to share. However, the existing language of Vehicle Code section 21202, which requires people on bicycles to “ride as close practicable to the right,” is dangerous. It encourages people on bicycles to weave in and out of traffic around parked cars, to ride in the “door zone” too closely to parked cars, and generally make themselves less visible and less predictable to those driving motor vehicles. Conversely, it also encourages people driving to pass those on bikes too closely, in violation of Vehicle Code 21760, and leads to harassment of people on bicycles. It is all too uncommon for a driver to yell “ride to the right” as they buzz by a vulnerable person on a bicycle. I support Vision Zero efforts to eliminate traffic fatalities and reduce serious traffic injuries.

5. A recent study by the National Transportation Safety Board found that speeding was one of the most common factors in crashes, and one of the highest contributors towards fatal crashes. Despite this fact, speed limits across California are consistently raised due to a state law that sets speed limits at the 85th percentile of measured driving speeds. Do you support reform to the 85th percentile rule to give local jurisdictions the ability to set speed limits to better promote safe driving?

I would support a pilot automated speed enforcement program in California. Street racing and excessive speeding are a serious problem in the 45th Assembly District, where there are many broad, straight streets with widely-spaced traffic signals and (outside rush hour) relatively low traffic volumes. Recent multiple-fatality collisions include a November 2016 crash in Woodland Hills adjacent to a schoolyard full of children, and a June 2016 crash in a thriving commercial district on Ventura Boulevard. In the West San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles Police Department does not have sufficient resources to devote to traffic enforcement and excessive speeding.

However, there are legitimate questions about the effectiveness of ASE, including how well it works on busy suburban streets (as opposed to limited-access highways), the amount over the speed limit that would trigger a ticket, and whether deployment at limited locations increases traffic volumes or speeding to parallel streets; privacy concerns regarding the manner in which data is collected and stored; and whether ASE would be deployed solely to maximize safety and not to generate revenue. Such questions should be addressed through a well-designed pilot program, before widespread implementation takes place.

6. California’s ongoing housing crisis challenges cities and communities to provide solutions towards meeting California’s demand for housing. Do you support efforts at the state level to accommodate smart growth, transit-oriented development, and sustainable communities that empower residents to get around on foot, by bike, and on quality public transit? What specific policies you would pursue to promote sustainable and affordable living for Californians?

California’s housing crisis must be addressed, and that can best be done by adopting policies that make it easier to build more housing, in appropriate locations. It is especially important to facilitate the construction of “missing middle” housing that is affordable to hard-working families who make too much to qualify for subsidized housing and cannot afford luxury housing. I strongly support policies that allow for more housing to be built near high-quality transit, and in areas with a concentration of stores, restaurants, services and other amenities that can be accessed by walking or bicycling. I am especially proud of my work in developing and implementing the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan, which allows for intensive development in an area that is well-served by the Orange Line and other transit, and includes plans for improving walking, biking and a local transit circulator.

The Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan should be a model. Importantly, it is also an example of a policy that respects local control over land use issues. It was adopted through extensive community engagement in which many local residents came to accept intensive development at the Warner Center in exchange for a promise that the City of Los Angeles would protect low-density suburban neighborhoods. By preempting local control in areas, like Woodland Hills, that are meeting the need for additional housing and growth, SB 827 goes too far, at least as currently written.

[wordlessdreams]

I am so f--king resentful.

Not directly related to driving this time, but I am so f—king resentful. In his eyes, I literally can do nothing right. If there is a misunderstanding, it is my fault. If he doesn’t understand my question, it’s because I don’t know how to ask it. He gives me confusing and downright contradicting statements, and if I don’t understand what he’s asking for, it’s because I don’t want to listen or learn. What. The. F—K.

I regret trying to start friendly conversation. I had thought it would make the trip back home less stressful, and initially, it had seemed to work. But I guess I should have known (after all, everything is always my fault) that sooner or later we would have a misunderstanding (notice how I’m not assigning blame??) and of course it would be all my fault. Just like how every driving “mistake” is all my fault. I can’t do a single thing right in my life, if getting yelled at almost every day is of any indication. Why do I even bother trying anymore?

Today’s misunderstanding was because I asked what I should do if my grandmother gave me spending money when I visited her in a few months. He said that since I’m earning money, I should pay her back. For the sake of posterity let me tell you a brief story of what happened 5 years ago, the first time I earned money and tried to give it to her. I thought I was doing a good deed/ being filial, giving her the most of my FIRST paycheck, but she wouldn’t take it, so I reluctantly brought it back home. When he found out, he was FURIOUS and blamed me for being selfish and ungrateful. Imagine what that feels like, trying to give and do the “right” thing, only for it not to work (because let’s face it, how many grandmothers take money from their grandchildren), and on top of that, being told it was YOUR fault, that YOU didn’t want to give the money, that YOU were being selfish?

Now fast forward to the present. Remembering this incident, I ventured that she wouldn’t take it. His response (verbatim): “I’ll make sure she takes it.” Okay, like how? Exactly how? Are you going to physically force her, coerce her, make sure you’re in the room when I hand it to her, or am I supposed to give it to her and report it to you if (when) I fail? When I try to ask for clarification, he snaps, “so you just don’t want to give the money to her, is that right?” Whoa, slow down?? First of all, that conclusion is unwarranted, second, you must have had to make like five assumptions (all of them wrong) to reach that conclusion, which, once again, is uncalled for?? When I tried again to clarify, exactly, HOW he was going to “make sure she takes it,” he blows up in my face and says, “I TOLD YOU!” I reply she isn’t going to take it from me if I directly hand it to her, so he snaps, “Well then what do you want me to say? You’re just saying you don’t want to give it to her.” AGAIN WITH THE CONCLUSIONS. We reach a red light, and taking a breath, I say calmly, “I think you misunderstood my intention in asking the question.” He retorts, “it’s because you don’t know how to ask a question.” A bunch of responses blow up in my mind, but I hold my tongue and just settle for silently seething the rest of the way home.

This is but one incident of many, of the hundreds I’ve had to endure over the last 2 decades of my life. I am so tired of being misunderstood, of being verbally (or at the very least emotionally) abused, of being made to feel that EVERYTHING I say and do is wrong. He has this very negative mental image of me, and if I do something that conforms to it, it strengthens the idea that he’s right; if my actions prove him wrong, he turns a blind eye or even twists his memory around so that he doesn’t remember. Let me give two recent examples.

Cooking Dinner: Last weekend we ate with some of his friends at a restaurant, during which the topic of cooking came up. He told his friends (in front of me) that I didn’t want to eat his cooking. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH???????? 1. You don’t even cook. I’ve been home for about 2 months now and the number of times you’ve cooked can be numbered with one hand. Missing a few fingers. 2. The few, few times you DID cook, I WAS THE ONE WHO ATE IT FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. 3. Your kitchen is so gross and crowded with – this is not an exaggeration – trash, I couldn’t even cook if I wanted to. Not to mention getting food poisoning from food that expired a few years ago (this is also sadly not an exaggeration) is a very real concern, so. Refer back to point 1. Being accused of something like this without ANY sort of proof (and in the face of so much counter-proof) is so galling my blood still boils as I write this.

Pulling up to the line before making a turn on red: This incident actually happened yesterday. As I pulled up to a red light, preparing to turn right, I stopped a bit prematurely as a row of cars passed me by. I waited until the last one had cleared, before pulling up a bit more BEFORE stopping again, checking for incoming cars, and then making my turn. He was pissed because he thinks I should have pulled up sooner, but I explained that I waited because I didn’t want the cars driving past me to get the wrong impression (i.e., I was moving forward because I was going to turn onto the street at that moment, even though they had the right of way). Plus, the light was still red???? So it wouldn’t have mattered that I waited a few more seconds before pulling up?? He seems to (very grudgingly) accept this rationale, so this conversation dropped.

Today, something similar happened, except I was on the main road and had the right of way. Another driver seemed to be pulling into the road (though she braked) as I was driving by, so for a fearful moment it looked like she was going to try venturing out even though I was incoming. She did not end up going out, though, so I drove on without incident. I pointed this out to him, who was convinced that she was going to try cutting into my lane, and only stopped when it became too apparent that she was not going to make it. He may be right, though I pointed out that me pulling up closer to the road even though I wasn’t going to move further out had the same effect – the drivers on the main road cannot always see your intentions; they only see a driver moving forward from the side as they drove by on the main road. For all I knew, she was simply pulling up in preparation of turning. Of course, he insists he is right, despite me pointing out that not everyone will make the same interpretation. He even went further to state that yesterday there hadn’t been anyone passing me at the time he wanted me to pull up, that I was just stalling for no reason. THE FACT THAT THERE WERE CARS DRIVING BY AND I DIDN’T WANT THEM TO MISUNDERSTAND WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF YESTERDAY’S TERSE CONVERSATION.

This is a recurring trend. I can’t even talk back without getting yelled at even further, so the only thing I can do is bite my tongue and right the truth here. When we’re driving, I don’t have enough confidence to assert myself, even though I don’t think everything I did was wrong. But being yelled at non-stop for 6 weeks straight has gotten so bad that I can feel my self-confidence at home crippling itself. When over the past weekend my friend offered to let me practice driving on Route 2/ merging/ parking with his car, I was so shocked someone could trust me so much and worried about damaging his car since I was convinced I was a terrible driver. My friend reassured me that that wouldn’t happen, that I was not as bad of a driver as I think I am. I wish he were more like that. Had my friend been the one coaching me these 6 weeks, I bet I could have gone on the highway by now, become a much more confident and safe driver. Instead, I’m always doubting myself, my judgments, playing a guessing game trying to figure out the rationale behind his contradictory advice and when to apply what (when do I go, when do I stop, why is it okay to speed up here, but slow down there?). Coming home from an 8-hour workday is exhausting enough, having to deal with this crap almost every day is really pushing the edges of my sanity. I am perpetually pissed, stressed, and resentful about everything. I seriously hate it here, and if it weren’t for the fact that we have loans to pay off, I’d move out asap too. Living together is too f—king miserable.

Even me, who had prided myself on never swearing, have reached the limits of my patience.

[malto444-blog]

Ars converses with David Braben on the difficulties of making recreations for genuine VR First class: Dangerous lead likewise discusses the amusement's 2.0 beta and future features.

Ninety outlines every second. That is the new focus for shopper VR equip: you require equipment fit for rendering two HD pictures with every one of the trimmings at a consistent 90fps, or the entire thing begins to shake and judder and make you wiped out. That 90fps prerequisite is what's driving the exasperatingly high VR framework necessities posted a couple days prior for Elite: Dangerous by Frontier Developments; as per Frontier, you require 16GB of RAM, a quick i7 quad-center CPU, and a GeForce GTX 980 to do VR well with Elite and purchaser VR equipment.

Studio author and CEO David Braben knows that the spec is high—the suggested video card alone will set you back in any event $500—however Braben is in to some degree a favored position among amusement designers: he has one of the main transportation triple-A diversions that, starting today, authoritatively bolsters VR without digging into config records and empower shrouded dev-just choices (I'm taking a gander at you, Alien: Isolation). The amusement's destined to-be-discharged "Skylines" 2.0 extension, which is at present in semi-open testing by the Elite playerbase, increases current standards and includes SteamVR bolster close by Oculus Rift bolster, which means you could connect a HTC Vive to your PC and play Elite: Dangerous on it at this moment, at the 90 outlines for every second the Vive lean towards for glass-smooth head following.

First class is one of the best VR encounters a PC gamer can have at this moment—and trust me, if a PC amusement underpins VR, I've given it a shot on my Oculus Rift DK2 at home, which is appended to a gaming PC that meets or surpasses Frontier's VR spec in each classification (I have a 980ti video card, yet just a single—SLI in Elite with VR is as of now tricky because of a mix of various issues). Braben clarified that the diversion's VR support is the consequence of an intricate move of instinct and configuration iteration."It's as much since we are gamers and in addition designers that we truly needed—especially individuals on the group—needed us to bolster VR," he said. The amusement's UI was laid out in the early outline prepare such that head mounted presentations would incorporate flawlessly into the expected cooperations—like looking left and ideal to summon up extra interface panels–and after a short measure of advancement, VR support was included into the alpha. It worked shockingly well from the start—something that Braben ascribes to the way Elite nearly coordinates the player's in-diversion symbol with the player's genuine body—situated, getting a handle on controls, and with the essential methods for "associating" with nature being restricted to moving one's head around.

"There's some extremely important discovering that we have from it," said Braben of propelling VR bolster in the amusement's alpha, which happened even before the Oculus Rift DK2 wound up plainly accessible. "What makes individuals feel wiped out, what is a decent ordeal, what is regular, where should you put the concentration remove for individuals—those things have any kind of effect to how pleasant it feels." Braben additionally said that the way that Elite: Dangerous utilizations Frontier's in-house Cobra motor rather than authorized innovation has made it simple to make an input circle to iteratively enhance VR bolster with each amusement refresh. Braben says, for instance, that the advancement work that went into the Xbox One port of the amusement was utilized to enhance and accelerate VR.

De-sicking the experience

Having unfaltering visual referents like a cockpit and instrument board is an imperative piece of "encouraging" the player's vestibular framework, yet Braben said that the group has found various other critical things that apply to strong VR configuration—like taking out quick perspective moves or shocks. De-coupling the situated involvement of the player, in actuality, from the player's in-diversion symbol is by all accounts the fastest route toward sickness.

"The way that you're situated on a couch or whatever in a work area seat, and you're situated in-amusement," he stated, is the thing that makes it work. "It's the point at which the thing begins ricocheting around and things like that where it doesn't coordinate that you begin to get the notice signs," he said. He went ahead to portray his involvement with the Sony Morpheus demo "The Deep," where you encounter a Great White assault while in a shark confine submerged, and said that his specific gone through finished with the shark conveying a gigantic pummel to the enclosure, which shook his whole visual field. The immense, sudden visual point of view bounce—which wasn't coordinated by anything his standing body was encountering—made his stomach sway.

"It's that kind of disengage—the sudden gigantic development of your virtual character that you don't detect, I believe that, I would by and by say, is somewhat of a no-no," he explained. "Thus we have been exceptionally cautious, so that with Elite: Dangerous, for instance, we discovered shaking the cockpit's OK, yet any sudden, expansive relocation will make you feel nauseous.""This is the place, I think, 90 outlines have a major effect," he stated, alluding to the progression up in the buyer renditions of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift to 90 outlines for each second. "The slack element, so that when you begin the development, when that is reflected in your vision—that time deferral is something else that can be critical. The greater part of this is about making the experience in the same class as conceivable."

The sort of lodging important for a strong VR encounter can't be darted on, proceeded with Braben. "You must have it as a main priority," he kept, talking about the combination of VR into a diversion. The parts Braben called "the hard bits" are pertinent regardless of what VR headset or SDK is being focused by an engineer. "The hard bits are getting your substance right, getting your edge rate streamlined with the goal that you can get 90 or near, is truly critical—that is a major stride over seventy-five," he stated, alluding to the 75 FPS invigorate rate utilized by the Oculus Rift DK2.

That 90 FPS necessity makes everything significantly more perplexing, obliging designers to settle on timing choices in how rapidly the amusement's material science and rationale refresh themselves.

"It takes everything to the edge more—ensuring that your amusement circle isn't running at a lower speed," he said. "Since where you won't not see it on a greater level screen, it's significantly more clear on a head-mounted show, since when you move your head around, you can see things like if the material science isn't refreshing at a similar speed. What's more, we played around with that, since it increases the heap on the machine."

That is no moon—hold up, yes it is

Despite the fact that there were major in the engine changes for the 2.0 "Skylines" development, similar to the expansion of SteamVR support, the most unmistakable expansion is planetary arrivals—a component that some long-lasting Elite fans have been clamoring for since the diversion's crowdfunding stage. Skylines at last conveys players the capacity to arrive on moons and planets, however in any event for the time being it's limited to moons and planets without climates. The extension additionally includes a surface meanderer (called a "SRV," for "surface recon vehicle") that players can drive around on surfaces and an entire arrangement of new planetary-centered missions. There will likewise be a plunder and making framework (the fundamentals of it are there in Horizons now, however it will be extraordinarily developed sooner or later after Horizons leaves beta).All this fasteners up the representation prerequisites, and Braben concedes that the rendering load on the diversion's motor is a whole lot higher now than it was before Horizons. VR, obviously, makes things considerably more mind boggling.

"We've really got a significantly heavier rendering prerequisite now with planetary surfaces, particularly when you're close to a ton of boats or your base," he clarified. "We put in these things that are intriguing, and players will have a tendency to assemble! I've as of now observed ten or more ships and sixteen SRVs, all skipping into each other. Furthermore, it's those things, together with every one of the planets and shadows, that tend to stack."

Generally speaking, Frontier is satisfied with how the Horizons beta is going—as the "2.0" rendition of the amusement, it speaks to the way ahead for how Elite will be created. Airless planetary arrivals will be increased by plundering and creating, which will develop the exceptionally essential framework set up right now and will permit players to accumulate assets from different places and manufacture and repair send parts with them. Sooner or later, this will be joined by the "multicrew" development that will give players a chance to populate the extra seats in their cockpits with different players; additionally on the rundown are little ship-propelled contender create, which could possibly be controlled by those different players. Sometime later will be components like a first-individual mode, permitting players to stroll around their boats; Frontier will likewise in the end extend planetary arrivals so they should be possible on items with atmospheres.All this wrenches up the representation prerequisites, and Braben concedes that the rendering load on the amusement's motor is a whole lot higher now than it was before Horizons. VR, obviously, makes things considerably more unpredictable.

"We've really got a substantially heavier rendering necessity now with planetary surfaces, particularly when you're close to a considerable measure of boats or your base," he clarified. "We put in these things that are intriguing, and players will have a tendency to gather! I've as of now observed ten or more ships and sixteen SRVs, all skipping into each other. Furthermore, it's those things, together with every one of the planets and shadows, that tend to stack."

In general, Frontier is satisfied with how the Horizons beta is going—as the "2.0" rendition of the amusement, it speaks to the way ahead for how Elite will be produced. Airless planetary arrivals will be increased by plundering and making, which will develop the extremely fundamental framework set up right now and will permit players to accumulate assets from variou.

[komtech-blog]

Intel’s Core M Compute Stick is an actually usable computer with caveats

Back in January at CES, Intel demonstrated to us a full scope of scaled down desktop PCs that it has been discharging consistently through the span of the year. The first was another, cheap variant of its Compute Stick, trailed by another, standard Skylake NUC, lastly a quad-center NUC box that wasn’t exactly similar to anything the organization had done some time recently.

Presently Intel has sent us the last gadget we found out about toward the start of the year: a Core m3-fueled adaptation of the Compute Stick that sits some place between the Atom rendition and the Skylake NUC on the cost and execution range. It looks pretty much like the Atom rendition we’ve as of now seen, however it presents a couple of perfect thoughts (and enough execution) that it’s really conceivable as a general-use desktop PC.

The awful news is the sticker price, which at $380 (with Windows, $300 without, and $485 with Windows and a Core m5) is quite far outside the sub-$150 spur of the moment purchase zone that the other Compute Sticks exist inside. So how well does it work? What bargains do you make when you recoil a not too bad portable workstation of force into a stick? Furthermore, how huge is the corner for a moderately effective, generally costly stick-sized desktop, at any rate?

A minor bundle with a couple of smart thoughts

The Core M Compute Sticks look a ton like the fresher Atom forms at first redden, yet in the event that you take a gander at the ports it turns out to be more evident which will be which. They just have one USB Type-A port, however they draw power through a USB Type-C port on the other side. A link (a thick, longish one incorporated into the container) gives both force and information, and there are two more USB Type-A ports incorporated with the force connector at the flip side.

It’s a (still-as well uncommon) case of the utility that USB Type-C should convey, an approach to fit more ports into a thing that doesn’t have space for those ports and an approach to at the same time convey power utilizing a standard connector. Associating assistants to ports on a force block that might possibly be effortlessly available isn’t perfect, however for things like wired consoles or other once in a while moved extras it’s a superior choice than purchasing a different center point.

The Windows forms of the stick ship with a moderately without cruft variant of 64-bit Windows 10—you get all the product that accompanies Intel’s drivers in addition to a remote console application for your telephone. One decent touch amid setup is that Windows will really delay to inquire as to whether you’d like to match a Bluetooth console and mouse in the event that it doesn’t recognize one, something that OS X and Chrome OS will do as a matter of course yet that Windows 10 still doesn’t think to accomplish for reasons unknown. You won’t have to uncover a USB console to use with the Compute Stick unless you need to (or in the event that you need to dive into the BIOS settings; the BIOS can work with Bluetooth frill however they should be matched from inside the BIOS).

The Compute Stick looks a great deal like a thick USB drive. It’s a long dark stick with a lustrous plastic completion on the end and a matte complete all over the place else. Its principle offering point is its subtlety—it can fit in spots where a mid-tower or even a NUC can’t go. It can’t draw the force it needs to keep running over HDMI, so you’ll need that force connector, however else it’s really simple to toss it in a sack and attach it to anything with a HDMI port, incorporating TVs in classrooms and inn rooms.

On the off chance that a x86 PC running Windows or Linux is an outright need for you, this is truly helpful, however it’s difficult to envision an excessive number of circumstances in which the Compute Stick would be more advantageous or valuable as a versatile PC than, say, a tablet.

In any case, the Core M form is at any rate sufficiently quick and very much specced enough to serve as a real broad use PC; running Chrome and Office and Slack and Spotify and a modest bunch of different applications on the Atom adaptation, with its weaker SoC and 2GB of RAM, is conceivable yet difficult. 4GB of RAM is indisputably the base I’d need in any PC I was attempting to use for work, and 64GB of capacity implies that altering a bundle of photographs or recordings is most likely out, yet multitasking is sensibly charming, and I could see it being a decent loaner/substitution desktop that IT shops could distribute when a client’s real desktop is in the shop.

Remote execution, a noteworthy issue in the original Compute Stick, is generally not an issue here. Wi-Fi availability appears to be great, however the gadget’s smallish radio wires presumably won’t work extraordinary in ranges where remote gathering is frail or flaky. Bluetooth works fine yet not awesome—if your embellishments are inside three or four feet of the gadget, all that I tried (a speaker, a mouse, and a console) worked fine. Five or six feet out, the mouse specifically began getting glitchier. Remember that on the off chance that you need to utilize the Compute Stick as a TV PC; you won’t get an awesome 10-foot experience in the event that some of your frill won’t work when the stick is 10 feet away.

Posting picture by Andrew Cunningham

Some warmth, some clamor

Both of the Atom Compute Sticks get somewhat warm and have little buzzy fans that twist up when you’re pushing them, yet both are entirely unpretentious; those Atom chips were made for fanless tablets, and their warmth yield is generally negligible.

Center M chips are in like manner generally found in fanless PCs, yet they’re ordinarily 10-to 13-inch convertibles or portable PCs with more space for heatsinks. In the littler limits of the Compute Stick, Core M needs a fan, and the fan and the warmth are two of the stick’s greatest disturbances.

The fan in the Compute Stick is fundamentally continually running, and the span of the fan in addition to the pace it needs to keep running at implies that its weak cry is constantly capable of being heard regardless of the fact that you’re playing music or something. Furthermore, in case you’re focusing on it (where by “focusing on it” I signify “doing anything that hits the CPU or GPU for more than a few moments) it turns up much louder.

What’s more, in spite of the fan’s chivalrous endeavors, the stick still figures out how to get truly hot being used—not so hot that you can’t touch it, but rather sufficiently hot that you wouldn’t have any desire to. Also, that level of warmth makes me stress over life span, as well. How well will this stick be functioning in two or three years, particularly in the event that it’s concealed in a dusty territory some place?

Power utilization and execution

The Compute Stick I tried is a Core m3-6Y30, a double center, four-string chip with an Intel HD 515 incorporated GPU; a business-accommodating Core m5-6Y57 rendition with vPro is additionally accessible. Both incorporate 4GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 RAM and 64GB of eMMC stockpiling—the last can be enlarged with microSD stockpiling, however the inward memory and capacity are obviously not upgradeable. 867Mbps 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 are given by an installed Intel 8260 connector, the same kind you’ll discover in most Skylake-based portable workstations.

Intel’s item page for the Core m3 guarantees a 2.2GHz top pace, however the most noteworthy velocity I ever saw while I was trying was 2.0GHz, and paces somewhere around 1.4 and 1.8GHz were more regular for ordinary errands like opening and hopping between applications. OEMs can increment or diminishing these chips’ TDP to fit better in a more extensive assortment of gadgets (the default is 4.5W, the maximum is 7W and the base is 3.8W). On the off chance that Intel is utilizing the lower TDP esteem, it would clarify the marginally bring down clock speeds.

The CPU execution is impressively slower in benchmarks than Core M-prepared portable workstations like the MacBook or Asus’ Zenbook UX305C, but since regardless we’re discussing the Skylake design it’s still route speedier than the shabby Atom sticks. What’s more, the GPU benchmarks are pretty much the same story—not as quick as Core M in a tablet, more than twice as quick as an Atom. The upshot is that you certainly won’t have any desire to utilize this as your exclusive PC, and you won’t have any desire to utilize it to play any late amusements, however it has recently enough energy to be usable for an ordinary Windows workload. It’s a multi-reason PC, where the Atom rendition is best utilized for maybe a couple particular assignments.

Capacity rate is better than average given the eMMC interface, yet in any case far beneath the PCI Express or even SATA III stockpiling accessible in portable PCs and NUCs. Dispatching applications and exchanging between regardless them feels sensibly smart more often than not.

The stick’s energy utilization is about where you’d anticipate that it will be, some place in the middle of the Atom Compute Sticks on the low end and the present standard Skylake NUC on the top of the line. It’s somewhat higher than the 4K-competent Roku 4 and altogether higher than the present Apple TV or a Roku 3, in case you’re thinking about it for HTPC use.

The Core M register stick is a truly cool bit of tech. That is a full Windows PC in there! What’s more, dissimilar to more established Atom adaptations of the same thought, this current one’s quite enough and sufficiently proficient to be utilized for universally useful figuring, and not simply essential scanning or stand utilization. 64GB of capacity isn’t sufficient for an essential PC for me, yet it’s more than adequate for a little travel desktop, and for a few people who stream a large portion of their video and music and don’t download a huge amount of stuff, it could conceivably supplant a delicately utilized desktop PC.

And still, after all that, it’s a troublesome buy to legitimize if size or versatility aren’t totally vital. The Core m3 form of the stick will run you $299 with no OS and $380 with a 64-bit establishment of Windows 10, more than twofold the expense of the Atom-fueled Compute Stick (as of this written work, Newegg records the Windows adaptation for $130, which is even lower than the $160 list cost). That is well into “real desktop PC” domain, and you can get a conventionally prepared fundamental tower for around that much from Dell and HP and others. In case you’re searching for a more flexible Windows-controlled other option to a gushing stick, the Atom show as of now does that. The Core M model can do 4K, however just at 30Hz and still, after all that it battles a bit, and it doesn’t include equipment speeding up for things like 10-bit HEVC/h.265 recordings in any case.