#the captions will be working! perfectly fine! and then the opening credits play and it skips the ad break

[toytulini]

getting real fucking fed up with hulu :)))))))))))))

[vanillann]

5 star conversation (reggie peters x reader)

I SAW THIS REQUEST AND SCREAMED I WAS SO EXCITED!!

word count: 4.9k (i can’t believe i wrote that much omg)

5 star conversation masterlist

place one: a 1 star motel

“I can’t believe this!”

Julie and I gave each other warnings look as he leaned against each other. That was Flynn’s “Something is going wrong and it’s the other person's fault” yell, and with how stressful the bus ride was I could tell this was worse.

“What’s wrong?” Reggie leaned over in his chair, his hood covering his face as we hid from camera flashes in the corner of the fancy hotel.

Julie shrugged, looking back to her phone and the Instagram edits of the band she had been tagged in.

“Guys, guys,” Alex did a awkward jog as he came back from the bathroom, the iconic pink hoodie pulled over his head and the front of his baseball hat sticking out.

“What?”

“I don’t think we have rooms,” Alex fell back beside Luke, his anxiety radiating from one person to another.

“Huh?”

We’ve had the tour planned out for months, each state planned and perfectly laid out for the perfect amount of work and play. There wasn’t a chance that we didn’t have the room for tonight, impossible.

“Flynn is too smart for that,” I leaned back, ignoring the way Reggie still leaned forward while his elbows on his knees watching me. It was weird, I knew it was Reggie but the way he sat and the fact I couldn’t see his face made it feel like a different person.

“(Y/N) right, Flynn way to put together for that,” Julie brushed off, hitting my shoulder to show me the edit she had found. It was of Reggie and I from a few shows ago, Flynn had been taking videos to help keep the fan active on us and she caught a video of Reggie and I fake rocking out on the empty stage.

It moved from that to a picture of Reggie and me in the costume store for the Halloween show, little fairy-like hearts floating around us. I smiled at the thought, grabbing Julie’s phone and sending the edit to me.

“Well, we don’t have rooms,” Flynn walked back, not giving any warning as she collapsed on top of Julie and I.

“I told you!”

Alex stood up, pointing his finger between Julie and I, a little smirk forming before he realized the weight of the words.

“What happened?”

“They didn’t tell me that rooms held for over 2 months have to be reinstated two week before or they cancel it,” Flynn didn’t move, laying over Julie and I with a broken spirit.

“I was looking forward to sleeping in a room, those bed’s on the bus suck,” Luke crossed his arms and pouted, looking like a kicked puppy.

“I don’t mind them,” Reggie smiled, bouncing in his seat slightly.

“It’s because you’d never fallen off the top,” Alex bit back, still mad about the sharp turns that have sent him flying the last few nights.

Flynn finally moved off Julie and I, saying nothing as she typed away on her phone. She walked away without another word, looking us back in the corner with hoods up.

I played with the sleeves of my own hoodie that had the new Julie and the Pathoms merch sketch.

“Oh look at this one!”

Julie showed me her phone again, this time a thirst trap edit. Her excitement bought the boys attention to us, all moving to look over my shoulder at the edit.

It started with a few of Julie with her amazing stage gear and a few photos from her instagram, neon letters over her head read “The Singer''. Then jumped to the few videos and pictures of Flynn that Julie and I would post behind her back, this time the neon letters read “The Manager''. Next was my face, bright smiles and a few of me backstage with an old Sunset Curve tee and sweat rolling down my back, the words said “The Designer ''.

I read the caption, smiling at “They carry the band” and laughing as the guys talked about the story behind each photo.

“I took the one of you in my old shirt,” Reggie smiled, staying beside me with his arm around the back of my seat. I did my best to ignore the butterflies, which became easy when Flynn came back with a smile.

“I found a motel across the street that will take us,” she spoke with pride, rightfully so as she saved us from another night on that bus.

“Oh I love you,” Alex jumped up, his arms wrapping around Flynn in a heartbeat. Julie smiled, standing up and putting the phone in the pocket of her hoodie.

“Come on, up,” Reggie jumped up, holding a hand up from me as I had started to slip down in my seat. I smiled, taking his cold hands and standing completely up with a smile.

“Thank you Reginald,” I winked, following the others as we made our way to the front of the hotel. I could already hear the crowd waiting for us, their cameras probably at the ready to take some pictures of the uprising band.

“Hoods up soldiers,” Luke announced, keeping Julie close as they were already openly in a relationship so nothing too bad could be made out of them. Alex stood in front of me, Flynn close behind as Reggie was an inch behind me.

I said nothing when I felt a small hand on my back, too caught up in the loud voices and the calling of our names.

“(Y/N)! Is it true you are jealous of the band!”

“(Y/N), Did you sleep with lead singer Luke even with him dating Julie?”

“Are the rumors of Reggie and you true?”

I was thankful we had made it cross the sidewalk when a large bus cut them all off, giving up enough time to make it to the motel without a problem. I was thankful once we made it inside but not for long as I took the place in.

The plants in the corner were dead, the desk was dusty and the couches looked to be from the 1800′s, not the good kind.

“How many stars does this place have?”

“Uhm, 4?” Flynn voiced jumped up, saying nothing to us as she walked up and dinged the bell on the front desk. I rolled my eyes, pulling out my phone and opening it to Google.

“What are you goggling?”

“Google, and this motel,” I corrected Reggie, doing a quick search of my location and found the name of the rusty place. When I saw the rating I almost screamed.

“This place just barely has one star!”

“What,” Luke ran from the random statue he was messing with to my side, tugging the phone so he could read the reviews.

“Apparently they had a rat in a bed once,” I spoke, reading over the words in horror.

“Nope, I’ll stay on the bus,” Alex let his hands fall to his side, walking back to the door before he noticed that the camera flashes had almost doubled and no way he could make it out without a panic attack.

“Evening.”

When I heard the vile voice I jumped into Reggie's side without thinking, looking up at the older man who was looking Flynn up and down like meat.

“I need six room,” Flynn didn’t waste time, holding the credit card in between her fingers as she did her best not to be a coward.

“He looks like the witch from Hansel and Gretel,” I whispered into Reggie’s ear, ignoring the way his arm seemed to drift to my waist.

“I don’t know how that is but I agree.”

“We only have only three rooms, little lady,” the man spoke, reaching for the credit card before Flynn moved it out of reach.

“You told me on the found you had six,” Flynn bit back, I admired her confidence in this moment as everyone was slowly losing there the longer we stood in this lobby.

“The paparazzi will have fun with this,” Julie reached my side, looking over her shoulder and the few shots they could get through the windows of the dusty place.

“Got that right.”

“Fine, will bunk up,” Flynn gave up with the man, it wasn’t any use and we were all tired of setting up the stage and soundcheck today. I had spent hours hunched over the computer trying to get the mercy drop reaching tomorrow morning, my back sore and my head hurting.

The man passed Flynn the keys, after she watched him closely to make sure he didn’t charge us extra. She walked over to us, obviously annoyed but calming down the closer she got to us, she knew how to manage her anger until it was only Julie and I around.

“Julie and I will take one room, Alex and (Y/N) will take another-'' I smiled as Alex was my go-to room partner.

“-And Luke and Reggie got the last,” Flynn started handing out keys when Luke started to pout.

“Last time I slept in the same room as Reggie he talked the entire night,” Luke pointed at Reggie, causing the boy beside me to frown.

“You sleep talk? I’ve never heard it,” I shrugged and looked at Luke who was confident that “Reggie sleep talks”.

“Why can’t I take Alex and (Y/N) take Reggie?”

This felt so out of character for Luke, he never missed an opportunity to hang out with Reggie, they always bunked together. It was weird how everyone agreed, which felt even more out of character.

“Okay it’s settled,” I wanted to say something, as a night in a room alone with Reggie would be horrible for my crush, but I didn’t want Reggie to think nobody wanted to bunk with him.

Reggie shrugged, taking our key from Flynn and grabbing my go-bag I’d set on the ground of the dirty motel.

“I’ll get our bags, I know you’ll sit with Fylnn and Julie before you come up,” he didn’t sound mad or upset, he was smiling widely as he skipped to the elevator before stopping halfway through and going to the stairs instead.

“What a gentleman,” Luke winked at me, smirking between the group as if he had done something.

That’s when it hit me, he had done something.

“Oh, you liar,” I pointed my finger at Luke’s chest, my pout similar to his earlier as I looked up to someone I called a close friend, basically family.

“I did nothing of the sort, he did talk all night last time we bunked together but it was because we decided we wanted to pull an all-nighter,” Luke shrugged, looking at the other three in the loony, all smiling at me.

“You’re all vile people,” I spoke, looking to Alex who wanted to laugh so bad by the look on his face.

“And you, why would you do this to me?”

“Because I’m so tired of Reggie and you dancing around each other,” Alex gave me a stern look, making me deflate slightly but that didn’t stop me.

“We do not,” the group finally started to move again, since Reggie would already be in the room and we didn’t want him suspicious.

“Oh no, you’re the liar now,” Luke sang over my shoulder, grabbing his and Julie’s bag, Alex getting him and reaching for Flynn bag who insisted she had it.

“His hands were all over you this morning on the bus,” Julie jumped in, grabbing my shoulders and leading me through the stairway.

“He was teaching me how to play bass,” I crossed my arm, knowing this conversation wasn’t going anywhere.

“Reggie never lets anyone touch his bass!”

I rolled my eyes, they were all insane at this point.

“The reason there are so many ship edits of you guys is that you give them so much to work with,” Flynn said from the front of the group, a kick in her step about the entire idea.

“It’s because fans are crazy,” we had finally made it to the third floor, opening the door and all walking into the smelly hallways.

“It smells like a pack of cigarettes,” I almost coughed as I spoke, watching Reggie’s back open the door and slide into our room.

“You coming to sit with us?”

“No, I’m mad at you all,” I frown, but none of my friends worried as I’d forgive in the morning because they were impossible to stay mad at.

“Suit yourself, also he didn’t have any two bedrooms so have fun sharing a bed,” Flynn gave me a sweet kiss on the cheek and skipped to her and Julie’s room.

“I’ll kill you,” I yelled at Flynn as she walked into her room, Julie giving a sweet waver over her shoulder.

“I wonder if they have a mini-fridge,” Luke spoke, opening the door as the two boys gave me an exciting wave as if they weren’t making my life harder.

“(Y/N)? Why are you yelling?”

I looked down a door or two to see Reggie leaning against the doorframe of our room with a white tee and black and red plaid pajama pants.

He was going to be the death of me.

“Uhm, Fylnn told me they didn’t have a breakfast bar,” I did my best to lie, smiling as I made my way to the door Reggie leaned against, his little smile made me feel light and fluffy.

“I’ll get us one of the Ubers to take us to that little diner on the corner,” Reggie smiled, not moving from the doorframe once I reached it.

I didn’t want to slide past him but I did, doing my best not to come in contact with him as that may just make it worse but luckily he moved back so that didn’t happen.

“Thank god, I like the layout of it.”

I saw the single Queen bed in the center of my room and my heart broke as I thought about Fylnn’s words, she wasn’t just trying to get under my skin.

“Yeah, I know you love dinners that look like they are from the 50s.”

My heart shouldn’t have been on fire because of his words but it 100% was. He remembered those little quirks and it started to make me feel light-headed.

“Yeah they’re my favorite,” I smiled over my shoulder, reaching for my bag I had packed for the night in the motel, luckily bought my sleep stuff and asleep attire.

“There was one by my house back in the 90s, it was right out of that movie you had me watched,” Reggie fell back on the left side, leaving the right side open for me.

He knew what freaking side of the bed I slept on, I was going to combust.

“Grease,” I ignored the way his arms bulged as he laid them behind his hand, looking up at me as I looked through my bag for a few more things.

“Yeah that one, I think I should do my hair like David-“

“Danny,” I corrected as I made my way to the bathroom, leaving the door cracked so I could keep the conversation but still closed enough so I wasn’t worried about Reggie seeing me.

“Oh yeah, I should do my hair like him.” I smiled to myself, imagining Reggie dancing around as a Danny from Grease, the excitement he would have.

I tried not to think about how hot he’d look with his hair slick back.

“Do it for Halloween next year,” I spoke up, splashing water on my face to make me feel a little calmer.

“But I thought we would do a matching costume?”

I was going to scream and cry if he didn’t stop acting like the perfect boy. How do you lie because Reggie Freaking Peters and not fall in love with him?

“You could be Sandy!”

I felt myself smile again, looking down at the short and long shirt I had stolen from Alex that sat on top of the toilet.

“You can have red lipstick and those leather pants,” he sounded like a child that was just given candy, he was jumping just at the thought of the costume together.

“The fans would love it,” maybe it wasn’t the best idea to bring them up, but I couldn’t stop myself from saying it.

“They would! They’d probably talk about how cool you look for months,” I finally got the shirt over my head, looking at myself in the mirror, my nerves calming the longer the conversation went on.

Reggie wouldn’t make this awkward on purpose, I knew that.

“Yeah, but they’d like us matching. They wouldn’t let the dating rumor die though”, I stepped out from the bathroom, careful not to hit the creaking floorboard I found earlier.

“Oh, I didn’t think about that,” I watched his face fall and maybe my heart broke a little, but it was probably better. If it didn’t I would have possibly let this crush grow more and more and I didn’t need that.

“Eh, I don’t really care what the fans think.”

Heart please don’t explode, you have a merch drop tomorrow.

“Must be nice,” I fell back on the bed, laying the same way as Reggie as we looked at the ceiling that could probably fall in any second now.

“Why do you care?”

I watched him flip on his stomach out of the corner of my eye, him watching me but my eyes didn’t leave the ceiling.

“They just like making rumors with people that aren’t in the band sometimes more than the ones in the band. You four are more open than Flynn and I so they can only make so many rumors, but Flynn and I,” I trailed off, not knowing if he wanted this conversation to get too emotional.

“Yeah I noticed that, I mean you're cheating with Luke!”

I laughed at this tone, that definitely was a real crazy one that just started.

“I literally hit him in the head with the mic stand yesterday and kept walking and people think we’re dating”, I laugh at the afterthought, Luke's face when the mic stand went by his face. He was fine, but I didn’t have time to help him up and he understood that.

“That was great to watch, I haven’t seen Luke that confused since we landed here,” I spotted his show stopping smile in the corner of my eye.

“He’s a mess that’s why.”

“All three of us are a mess, without you, Julie, and Flynn we would be dead.”

“You’re already dead,” I tried to keep a straight face but as soon as I looked at Reggie my giggles filled the room, a hand on my stomach as I rolled over slightly.

“You’re horrible! You’re laughing at my death!”

I kept laughing, looking over at him a few times but it only caused me to laugh harder.

“I can’t believe I was excited to have a sleepover with you,” he had a goofy smile on his face as he watched me roll around.

“You 're excited,” I was finally calming down, trying to blame my racing heart on laughing.

“Yeah!”

He was so confident in his answer it felt like he meant it, like he wasn’t just being nice or just happy to be close with his friend.

Reggie liked being with people, he was a people person, and I was a person.

“I was excited too.”

Wow (Y/N) don’t you love your loud mouth.

He looked around my face, his eyes tracing my features with a smile painted across his face. I was shocked someone could be so happy like looked at me, but he did and it felt nice.

It was creepy or uncomfortable, nothing with Reggie ever was. He made everything feel easy, and maybe that’s why he has plagued my thoughts for so long.

“We should head to bed,” I could speak above a whisper with the way he was looking at me, the way his eyes traced my nose and my eyes.

“Yeah.”

We didn’t move, just watching each other as if it was supposed to be sleep for us. I wasn’t tired watching him like this, how could I be tired when he made me feel more alive than ever.

The loud knock on the door brought me out of my trace, my fear of what could be at the door had me moving closer to Reggie without thinking.

I felt the side of the move, Reggie slowly walking to the moldy wooden door with the small peep hole, or more like someone put a nail though and took it out.

He looked through it, reading to each for the candlestick before he rolled his eyes and swung open the door. Alex stood with an awkward smile, doing an odd dance before smiling at Reggie and I.

“Alex?”

“Can I use your bathroom?” I finally realized why he was dancing and smiled to himself.

“Sure but why?”

As soon as he heard my yes he pushed past Reggie, running into the thin wall bathroom without an answer until I heard him yell “Yes!”

“Our bathroom had some weird bug in the toilet and Julie and Flynn’s bathroom was connected to some weird old dude who fell asleep on the toilet,” Alex responded through the door, the excitement obviously in his voice.

“Looks like I got the good room,” Reggie smiled but I was hoping Alex would catch on to my comment and by the way he laughed I think he did.

“Shut up (Y/N)!”

Reggie knocked on the door jokingly as he passed, making his way back to the other side of the bed.

“How did Julie and Flynn get a conjoining room?”

“I don’t know and I don’t want to,” Alex yelled back, the sound of running water confirmed he was now washing his hands.

“You don’t have paper towels,” Alex opens the door, holding his hands in front of him as he looks like a kicked puppy.

“Use your shirt,” Reggie nodded at him, both him and I on our side as we watched Alex.

“It’s not mine! It’s Willie’s.”

“We won’t tell if you don’t,” I smiled back, giving Alex a wink.

“I accidentally told him,” Alex muttered as he started walking to the door, waving back at us and he left to go back to his own room.

As soon as the door shut I let myself laugh a little at my close friend, slowly reaching for the lamp and lifting the covers up. I could feel Reggie doing the same as the cold air hitting my skin when it moved and disappearing once it fell.

“Must I say, this motel isn’t that bad.”

I turned to look back at Reggie, the only reason I could see his face was because of the city lights from the window that danced across his face.

“What?”

“Don’t get me wrong, this place breaks every violation ever, but I think places like this bring out the best stories,” Reggie moved to look at me, his nose close to my own and he smiled at me.

I smiled, it was truly the Reggie-ish thing I had ever heard.

“I believe that,” I spoke softly, watching him again but this time the tension was thick, it felt so much calmer.

“Julie and Flynn will never forget the creepy guy, Alex and Luke will laugh about Alex blatter, and I’ll never forget the best sleepover ever,” each word brought a little larger smile on his face, my heart racing again at his words.

“I mean that much to you?” I said the words jokingly, placing a hand over my heart as I spoke but Reggie took it differently.

“Most definitely,” his words are soft, making my eyes grow tired as his breath fan across my face.

He was watching me again, this time he looked like an angel with the way the city light bounced off his cheeks and bought out his pink lips.

“Yeah?”

“Yep,” his face looked like it was moving closer to me but I knew better than to think that, but that didn’t crush that little hope in the back of my head.

“If you were there in the 90s, I’d probably still be alive,” eye contact was made and I thought I would jump him there.

“I wasn’t alive then.”

“I know, but you’re alive now and I feel alive,” Reggie shrugged as if his words didn’t mean everything to me.

Like he didn’t mean everything to me. I felt myself break eye contact, smiling like a fool as I looked to the tv that was barely hanging on the wall.

“You’re cold,” I spoke softly, because what else was I supposed to say?

“You’re warm,” as he spoke he grew closer to me, resting his head near my collarbone as he waited for me to speak but it never came.

“Can I lay my head on your shoulder?”

“Most definitely,” I repeated his rooms from earlier, smiling when I felt his hair brush my cheek and he drew close to me.

“Goodnight (Y/N),” he spoke softly, his words causing shivers to run up and down my spine like a track race.

“Goodnight Reggie.”

A loud bang on the door woke me up, causing me to almost fall from the bed if the hand that grabbed my shirt wasn't a tiger. His arms weren’t around me, simply holding me closer by my shirt, his head still on my shoulder as my head laid on his.

“Flynn has coffee!” Julie’s voice was joyus, making a smile spread across my lips. My friends knew me so well, my hands gently pulling Reggie’s fist from my shirt. I carefully pulled myself from the bed, tip-toeing across the room to the door. I didn’t even need to look through the peephole to know who was on the other side.

“Did you get a cup for your neighbor?”

Flynn smiled, dropped, and the coffee she held out to me was brought closer to her chest.

“And to think I gave you a kiss yesterday,” I rolled my eyes, reaching out for the coffee that was easy to pull from her hands.

“Luke and Alex are stealing breakfast from the hotel we were supposed to be staying at,” Julie brushed past me, stopping in her tracks when she noticed Reggie's sleeping body, obviously splashing on both sides of the bed.

“How are they doing that?”

“I don't wanna know, but I do wanna know what happened here last night,” Julie  spun around, pointing at Reggie over her shoulder.

“We talked and went to bed,” I shrugged, doing my best to keep my voice down but it wouldn’t change anything, Reggie was a heavy sleeper.

“I thought you would make a plate on the floor or something,” Flynn spoke as she joined us in the room, slowly walking to Reggie and inspecting him.

“That felt rude,” I sipped on the coffee, smiling when I realized Julie and Flynn got my order right.

“Or,” Julie turned around, poking my side with a goofy smile. I rolled my eyes, my excitement from last night and the presents of my friends was sending me through the roof and I don’t think I could handle it much longer.

“Guys!”

I looked down the hall, smiling when I saw Alex and Luke breathing heavily with large bags of hopeful food in their hands.

“Is that from the hotel?”

“Of course,” Luke smiled as he slipped into the room, handing me one of the bags so I could place it on the small table in the motel.

“We got chased out but we did it!”

I laughed at Alex's face, the anxiety was obvious but the smile told me he was fine and there wasn’t much to worry about.

“Well well well,” Luke walked around the bed, smiling at Reggie’s sleeping form.

“Don’t say a word,” I opened one of the bags and pulled a small piece of pancake off, and threw it in the air, catching it in my mouth easily. Perks of being friends with Luke, he teaches great party tricks.

“Aren’t you two the cutest,” Luke came over to my side, waving Julie over to show me something on her phone. I looked over my shoulder, watching a new edit that was posted maybe an hour ago.

“Reggie and (Y/N) were seen awfully close leaving their hotel last night,” the E! News reporter said, the edit jumping to a meme I had seen of a dude crying. Next thing I knew pictures from last night flash across the screen, Reggie’s hand on my lower back. The edit jumped to other pictures of us joking around followed.

I smiled, turning back to the bag and pulling another piece of pancake out.

“Awh look at that,” Flynn pitched my cheeks, smiling at my as I laughed it off. Butterflies were flying through my stomach but I didn my best to hide it.

“What?”

Everyone turned to Reggie once sleeping form, his eyes scanning the room before he fell back to the bed.

“Did anyone knock?”

“We did,” Julie smiled, flopping on the bed so her head laid on his legs.

“I wasn’t informed,” Reggie sat up, looking at me with a grumpy frown. I shrugged, taking another bite of pancake while smiling at him.

“What? You wanted me to wake you?”

“Most definitely,” Reggie smiled, the conversation from last night still floating around his brain.

I nodded, looking down at my hands and thought back to the late night we had with nothing but calming security.

He was right, crappy motels brought the best memories out in people.



[operationrainfall]

Title Vectronom Developer Ludopium Publisher ARTE France Release Date May 29th, 2019 Genre Rhythm, Music, Puzzle Platform PC, Switch Age Rating E for Everyone Official Website

If you’ve ever wondered what an EDM soundtrack would look like if it were visualized in the form of colorful vector images, then wonder no more. Vectronom is a rhythmic puzzle game where players are tasked with guiding a cube through mazes of changing obstacles while matching their movements to the beat of EDM which plays in the background. At first glance, this may seem like an easy and basic rhythm game, but after about two minutes of playtime, you’ll begin to see how wrong that initial assumption is. This title comes to us from an indie studio out of Germany- Ludopium. It was published by ARTE in late May and is currently available for PC, Mac, and the Nintendo Switch. For the purposes of this review, I’ve taken a look at the Steam version.

I generally structure my reviews by discussing gameplay, visuals, and sounds in three distinct paragraphs. In the case of Vectronom however, I don’t feel like that structure makes sense. All three of those above categories work in tandem here to create a rather hypnotic experience for the player. To examine them one at a time just doesn’t feel right. Rather, let’s start by discussing how you progress through the game. The entirety of Vectronom’s gameplay is centered around traversing obstacle courses while keeping in beat with the music. These obstacle courses are made up of entirely of vector shapes. Obstacles include spiky prisms and pitfalls that often appear out of nowhere. Each course is a bit different, but each new course tends to build off of the preceding one. Once you complete four or five courses, you will essentially complete one level. There are ten levels in all plus one bonus mini level at the end. Sounds easy enough, right?

Fear not, for there is a great deal of challenge involved. This challenge becomes apparent once you begin controlling your cube. The controls themselves are pretty responsive, but I found controlling the cube to be very challenging. This was because I needed to time my movements perfectly with the beat of the music while also trying to memorize patterns for how stages would change with the music. When I say change, I mean that for each beat in a stage’s song, spikes may appear in certain areas, certain parts of the ground might disappear, and other parts of the ground might reappear. For many stages, the designs will change entirely whenever the beat changes. It would be easy enough to sit back and memorize the patterns that these changes follow since they are not done at random, but half of your end score is determined by how accurately you are able to match your movements to the beat. Your brain has to keep track of both each beat and memorize the stage’s patterns at the same time.

Additionally, the controls themselves are meant to add to the level of difficulty. All levels are presented from a top-down isometric view and you are able to move diagonally up, diagonally down, diagonally left, and diagonally right. You will of course be using the WASD keys, so it may take a moment to get used to this control scheme when you first begin playing. I often found it tempting to just move asynchronously from the beat of the music, but this of course would’ve lowered my score and I actually ended up making more mistakes that way.

Speaking of the music, let’s tackle the sound design’s score now. As I alluded to above, Vectronom is backed with an upbeat EDM soundtrack with each stage’s track building off of the previous one in some way. While none of them stood out to me as overly memorable after the fact, they were all very entrancing and I feel as though this was very intentional. Once again, playing this title is meant to be a hypnotic experience and the music certainly lends itself well to that. Since it’s paramount to listen carefully and follow along with the beat to progress through each level, it’s definitely nice that the music is not only well-paced but enjoyable to listen to as well.

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Perhaps I should have called this out earlier, but one thing to note for players with epilepsy is that the visuals in Vectronom include constantly flashing colors. Static backgrounds can be toggled at any time though if you select that option from within the accessibility tools list in the options menu. In fact, there are actually a surprising number of accessibility options available for those who need to fine tune the game to suit their needs. For those with deuteranopia, protanopia, or tritanopia (forms of color blindness), there are options for adjusting the colors accordingly to compensate. Additionally, there is a grayscale option which can be selected. While perhaps not a true accessibility option, you can also adjust the margin of error for player input from extremely tight to ludicrously loose. I thought that the color settings were a very thoughtful addition and I actually tried them out myself just to see what the experience would be like.

Clocking in at just over 3 hours for a full playthrough (for this reviewer), Vectronom is certainly not a very long game. It is a very engrossing title though and I feel that given the hypnotic, relaxing nature of its levels, it has a relatively high replay value. You can also revisit levels that you were previously unable to obtain the highest scores in and replay them. This is the type of game that you put on when you have a great deal of outside stressors to worry about and just want something to get lost in. There’s no story, no characters, and no great prize at the end of your tale. There’s just you, your cube, and a bumpin’ EDM soundtrack to become entranced in. It may have been relatively short, but for the time that I spent with this one I couldn’t find any glaring flaws. Combined with a relatively low price point of $9.99 USD, I’d say this one’s worth your time if you’re looking for something to play around with in your down time.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

  A review copy was provided by the publisher.

REVIEW: Vectronom Title Vectronom

[unreadable0]

I hope I’m not too late but how about #5 with kurokura ❤️

Thanks for the prompt ask! I kind of altered this prompt a bit to fit the characters, but I hope you still like it! Agent!AU, basically, with actor!Kuroro and undercover agent!Kurapika.

Pairings: Kuroro/Kurapika, implied Leorio/Kurapika

5.  They are both actors and they love to share their romance on social media.

“Is this warranted?”

Mizaistorm briefly considered for the umpteenth time applying for his own private office. One that had doors. Doors that locked. That wouldn’t be too much to ask for, judging by the fact that Hunter’s agency was the most lucrative secret service network in the country, now would it? Plus, it would be worth facing down the chairman’s exuberant moods if it meant that a certain emergency medic would no longer have direct access to his working quarters.

“Is this even following protocol?” Leorio repeated, once again jamming his phone into the senior officer’s face. Mizaistorm sighed inwardly. He needed another coffee if he was to be dealing with yet another annoying break-in from his subordinate.

Glancing at the screen purely to placate the irate man in front of him, Mizaistorm raised an eyebrow. It was picture of his most successful agent, Kurapika Kurta, entwined in the arms of his newest informant, a slight smile gracing the blond’s usually frowning lips.

“Well, good. He’s following his briefing,” was all he said, turning the majority of his focus back to his paperwork. “Is there a problem, Paladiknight?”

Leorio’s face drifted through several shades of red, spluttering. “Is there a problem?” he hissed, looking around quickly. As if it mattered, seeing that even the people on the other side of the compound could hear them. “Of course there’s a freaking problem! Just look at these!”

Reluctantly, Mizaistorm obeyed, accepting the device being so violently shoved at his face.

Picture after picture of the happy couple met his eyes. One was taken at a beach, with Kurapika’s modelesque physique on full display, looking adorably surprised at his picture being taken. Another featured the agent grinning at the camera, his dark-haired partner kissing his cheek with a smug smile on his face. Yet another saw Kurapika dressed in a formal tuxedo, arm linked with the same man as he walked to the venue of a movie premiere.

None of these pictures were posted on the blond’s own social media, however, as agents were forbidden to have such things. No, the snapshots graced the page of Kuroro Lucilfer, A-list actor and entrepreneur. With a following over twenty million, Lucilfer was playing his role perfectly, bolstering Kurapika’s cover through the publicity of the media.

“He’s better at acting than I gave him credit for,” Mizaistorm  admitted, smiling as Leorio’s angry noises got louder. “He’s really playing his cover well. Heck, Tserriednich won’t even know what hit him!”

“That’s not the point! Isn’t this a bit unprofessional?” Leorio asked, trying a different angle.

Mizaistorm shrugged. “His cover is to pose as Lucilfer’s significant other. It’s expected that Kurapika be the model of romantic domesticity with him, especially considering how they’ve been seen together for approximately seven months.” It was a little over-the-top with the PDA, but he didn’t particularly mind as long as his agents were safe and the mission passed smoothly.

“No, not Kurapika! I’m talking about Lucilfer.” Leorio spit the actor’s name out so venomously, that Mizaistorm blinked in shock.

“He’s being a perfectly fine cooperator. He’s followed all our directions without any problem.”

“But he made it so public, is that not a security concern?”

“No. Not when Kurapika’s real identity is kept a secret. He’s actually helping us by supporting Kurapika’s cover,” he replied easily.

“I don’t trust that bastard,” Leorio ground out, not finding a proper argument to respond to Mizaistorm’s assurances.

Mizaistorm smiled gently, hoping to tamper down the other’s obvious jealousy. “You don’t have to. If he does anything out of line, Kurapika can take him out without any legal consequence, no questions asked.”

Huffing, the medic presented his last frustration. “I just don’t like the idea of that slippery son of a—” the doctor cut himself off quickly, trying to regain some of his composure. “When that man first considered this position, he specifically requested Kurapika be the one to go undercover, and only agreed to give us information if we fulfilled that request. Isn’t that a bit suspicious?”

“Just get to the point,” Mizaistorm said, recognizing the other’s hedging when he heard it.

“Why couldn’t you just have sent me with Kurapika instead? I mean, we could have found another way to get the information.”

The other man’s words were so ridiculous that Mizaistorm had to laugh, something that he seldom did. “First of all, no, Lucilfer was the safest person that we could associate with, so we had to please his requirements. And, Leorio, you’re a medic. Yes, we could have drawn up a cover, but that would have dangerous.” Mizaistorm put aside his paperwork, making eye contact with the younger man for the first time. “I don’t give a damn about Lucilfer and I don’t think I ever will, but I’d rather trust him than place not one, but two of my agents in danger. do you understand?”

Leorio opened his mouth as if to speak, and then closed it, the boiling emotions finally simmering down. “Yes, Officer.”

“Good.” Mizaistorm smiled reassuringly. “And don’t worry about Kurapika. He’s the best of all my field agents, so he can handle himself.”

“I’ll try my best not to, officer,” Leorio replied, grinning sheepishly. “I guess I’ll just, um, go now.”

“Oh yes, please do,” the older man encouraged, nodding vigorously. Thank god.

Right as Leorio was about to step out of the cubicle, his phone dinged. The screen lit up, displaying a notification that read: New post by Kuroro Lucilfer.

Swiping to see it, Leorio’s eyes widened.

A picture of Kurapika and Lucilfer’s hands was shown, two thin bands looping around their entwined fingers. The caption read, He said yes!

Needless to say, Leorio promptly fainted on the spot.  

this was fun to write. inspired by this.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/supernatural-various-sundry-villains-kill-darlings/

'Supernatural' Various & Sundry Villains: Kill Your Darlings

Okay, I’m going to be upfront, I was ready to be super underwhelmed by last week’s Supernatural episode “Various & Sundry Villains.” All of the promotion focused on the love spell, and frankly, we’ve been there, done that. In fact, I’m shocked that showrunner Andrew Dabb let this pitch go to script given that he wrote the controversial episode “Season 7 Time for a Wedding”, an episode that I can honestly say has only one truly redeeming quality: Leslie Odom, Jr. was in it. While this was arguably derivative of that episode, giving this the go ahead was risky on Dabb’s part. It paid off for writer, Steve Yockey, because this love spell outing was much better than the last. In the opening of this episode we meet the Plum sisters, and I hate to say this, but despite watching this episode three times I don’t actually remember their first names and I could barely tell them apart anyway, so we’ll just call the one Dean “falls in love with” Harley Quinn and the other one we’ll call… Harley Quinn’s little sister? Yeah, sure, why not? Between the cutesy valley girl verbiage and the bloody sledgehammer, I’m sure we were supposed to get an Arkham Asylum vibe off these two. At least, I really hope that was the intention. I’ll be honest, I was not impressed with these characters and I’m not sure if it was off writing, off casting, or off directing, but they felt really forced. From their overly stereotypical Millenial way of speaking to their overtly blatant mirroring of Sam and Dean (yes, we get it, one is younger and brainy, they other is older and protective, they’re obsessed with their dead mom and it could go badly, was that a hammer they were using or an anvil?) the Plum sisters, unlike their Winchester counterparts, came off as grating. Maybe they were supposed to? Again, I hope so. I will say that as a horror buff I enjoyed the return of Rowena’s mad dog spell and the demise of the Plum sisters at each other’s hands. I saw a lot of people say it was too much, too gratuitous, too gory. And perhaps it was, but given the movies I regularly watch and enjoy, well, I embraced it. While I will say I’m glad the love spell portion of the episode was short-lived, it’s always fun to see Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki show off their comedy elbow chops; Ackles with the perfectly timed glibness he brings to Dean Winchester and Padalecki’s Sam Winchester, ever the earnest Abbott to Ackles’ Costello, was subtle, stoic faced gold. Ackles and Padalecki got to play off each other magnificently in this episode; from Dean walking in practically floating on a love cloud, to Sam trying desperately to remind Dean they’ve been down this weird love spell road before, to Ackles’ delivery of “‘cause she’s got a sister”, to their tussle in front of the Impala (though, dang, these boys horseplay hard given the butt dent Sam left on the hood after Dean rushed him) the two actors smoothly show how well they work together no matter the material. But the star of this episode was Rowena. Her entrance was stellar, and she stole every scene. Ruth Connell is delightful in this role and for the most part (we’ll get to that later) I was glad to see her back because I was sorry to lose her last season, especially in such a cheap, off-screen way. I’m hard-pressed to fall for new characters, but Rowena is one that I really enjoy. Connell was able to give us comedy and tragedy in this episode, going from snark to desperation fluidly. I also have to give Steve Yockey heaps of credit for having Rowena not only ask about Crowley but allowing her to have an outburst about his death. Hearing her say that she’d rather have him alive than to have died a hero hit really close to home given that the lack of Mark Sheppard as Crowley has been quite the gaping hole this season. Take a note from Yockey, other writers, because I’m still waiting for Castiel to ask about Meg… Speaking of Castiel, he and Lucifer were locked up. Now they aren’t. And like, they had a whole big penis to penis measurement contest and Castiel for some reason tried to hurt Lucifer by telling him that Jack doesn’t even look like him, which… um, Lucifer is in the image of a seasons dead vessel so, of course, he doesn’t look like him. And also, when did you get to know so much about Jack, Castiel? I think maybe the writer accidentally gave Misha Collins some of Sam’s lines to say. If I sound like I was less than moved by any of these scenes, it’s because I wasn’t. The scenes weren’t objectively bad or anything, and not only has Mark Pellegrino has found his footing as Lucifer again, but he and Collins play extremely well off each other. Unfortunately, their scenes simply didn’t mesh well with the “A” plot and the dichotomy crashed the episode’s momentum. Although, I did enjoy both characters reminding each other what untrustworthy, hypocritical screw-ups both have been. Again, I appreciate it when Supernatural is self-aware like that because fallibility gives depth and interest. Now, you didn’t think I was going to review this episode and not talk about Sam and Rowena sharing their trauma, did you? Because that was a scene that many Supernatural fans have waited years for. In season 11, Sam was forced to not only work with Lucifer, but he had to allow Lucifer into his home, into his room, and wasn’t allowed to voice any grievances about it and while Padalecki did a phenomenal job adding little twitches and moments of tight body language and subtle distance, it was all too obvious that the writers were wary of taking Sam’s trauma seriously because at the time Lucifer was possessing Castiel’s body and the “Cassifer" version of Lucifer was played mostly as a joke throughout that entire arc, nothing but a bratty teenager throwing a tantrum, while Sam Winchester, the boy who had every reason to rip into both Lucifer and God, just stood on the sidelines silently like he was totally fine. But he wasn’t, he hasn’t been, and watching Sam and Rowena both delve into the trauma and abuse they experienced at Lucifer’s hand was fantastically written and acted. Yockey was able to give the characters just enough for them to convey, through their tone, inflections, and facial expressions how much they were, no are, broken by the Devil himself. Having them both admit to seeing Lucifer’s real face, while giving no descriptive details was brilliant. Both Padalecki and Connell were able to communicate to the audience how horrific it was for their characters without any unnecessary detail. Such a great “show, don’t tell” moment; it’s so much more frightening for the viewer to fill in the blanks. And Sam explaining that it isn’t that he’s okay, it’s that he never gets the chance to fully deal with his trauma because the world is always falling apart was both heartbreaking and much needed, not only for Sam to say it but for the audience to hear it. At the end of this episode we got to see the other side of the Ackles/Padalecki chemistry, their ability to rip your heart out, when Sam and Dean have a frank discussion back at the bunker about what to do going forward. Dean knowing that Sam gave Rowena the spell she wanted and instead of yelling and belittling him, he’s simply honest and direct with him and doesn’t question Sam when he says that if Rowena played him again, he’ll personally kill her. It was also good to hear Sam be open with Dean about how defeated he feels, about how he tried to mask that with conviction and hope, but that he can’t fake it til he makes it anymore. And while Dean’s words of encouragement and confidence may seemingly ring hollow to Sam, it’s not because Sam doesn’t have faith in Dean, it’s that right now he can’t see where Dean is coming from. Dean knows, because characters have told him for years, how important he and Sam are, how they keep this world spinning, but Sam has never heard it directly, not from God, not from Amara, not from Death, not from Billie. Those declarations have only been uttered to Dean and then conveyed by Dean to Sam, so Dean knows that they’ll figure out a way, that it’s basically destiny and Sam has no choice but to take Dean’s word for it. I could go on and on about the isolation of Sam Winchester, but that’s an article for a different day. [caption id="attachment_53290" align="aligncenter" width="696"] Photo: Home of the Nutty[/caption] Overall, this was a mytharc episode done well, slightly overstuffed as most mytharc episodes are, but coherent and well paced with a fantastic blend of horror, levity, and angst. That said, the last thing I want to touch on for this episode is something that was absolutely no fault of the writer, Steve Yockey, but I think is an increasing problem on Supernatural; the element of surprise is gone, as are the stakes. Supernatural was once known as a show where rocks fell, and everyone died. It was also a show where Jim Beaver once hid his reprisal of Bobby Singer by trying to convince fandom that he was in Vancouver shooting an abominable snowman movie so that his return to the show wasn’t spoiled Fast forward just a few years and the cast, crew, and network PR are spoiling character reveals weeks, even months in advance. Instead of being shocked by Rowena’s return we all went into this episode waiting for her appearance, and while we saw Castiel stab Lucifer with an angel blade; saw the red light go out of Lucifer’s eyes; it’s all for naught. Lucifer is the focus of the promo that aired right after the episode, and the synopsis for the next episode lays out exactly what he’ll be up to. Even last season finale, no one believed Castiel was actually permanently dead. Hell, it took Mark Sheppard declaring that he refuses to ever reprise his role for fans to believe Crowley was truly dead. No stakes means no emotional payoff. No secrecy means no shock and awe. Take a page from some of the greats, Supernatural, including yourself: what’s dead should stay dead, so kill your darlings and if you must bring them back, stop telegraphing their returns. Check out this week's Supernatural Devil's Bargain trailer above.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

[coffeeandmakeup]

Makeup Geek Matrix Palettes | Makeup Geek Eyeshadows

This review is for the Makeup Geek Matrix Mega Set ($220), which includes two magnetic palettes full of most of their single eyeshadows. I am also reviewing four additional single eyeshadows that were released as part of their recent rebrand but were not included in the palettes. The palettes can be purchased individually for $125 each. The individual matte shadows are $5.49 each while the foiled shadows are $7.99 each. Buying the whole set brings the price of the individual eyeshadows down to $3.93 each. Buying just one palette will bring the price down to $4.46 each. These are just rough calculations considering you also get the magnetic palettes. The point is, if you want a whole bunch of shades, it may be more cost effective to just get one or both palettes.

The magnetic palettes themselves feel like really nice quality. The back and sides are made of a rubberized material so they aren’t slippery in your hands. The lid can be positioned anywhere and has some tension to it so you can leave it halfway open and it will remain in that position. You can also lay it out completely flat. The lid is held shut magnetically as well. Now, I did see a review from Annette’s Makeup Corner, and she got one of the magnetic palettes that holds 9 eyeshadows. The magnetized sheet that was inside was warped in hers, so perhaps there is some variation in the quality of the palettes from size to size.

There is a gap between the pans in the palette when it is completely filled, meaning the pans don’t fit 100% perfectly in these palettes. This may be annoying for some people but for me I really don’t care. This gap makes it easier for me to take shades out if I want to without having to use some sort of tool to do so.

There are currently 10 foiled eyeshadows available. Three of them were slightly sheerer than the rest (Medieval, Day Dreamer, and Whimsical) but I had no problems building them up. They have a smooth, almost creamy texture that was neither too thin nor too thick. I was able to use a brush to apply them to the lid just fine but as with all shimmers, using my fingers did give me more intense color payoff and higher shine. There was some shimmer fallout but not so much that I feel the need to apply my foundation after my eyeshadow.

The formula of the mattes is different than most the mainstream brands I’ve tried. It took me a while to “get to know” this formula and how best to apply it. They are generally somewhat powdery, yet very pigmented. The majority of them adhere very well to the eyelid and don’t dust away (except for Prim and Proper, Blushing Beauty, Bitten, and Spilled Tea, which were slightly thinner and dustier than the rest but still workable). I can apply them either to a set or unset base. I appreciate this flexibility. I prefer to set my base as my eyelids can tend to get oily throughout the day.

Many of the deeper matte shades applied much more evenly with a flat shader brush, but this also caused the color to go on darker and made it more challenging to blend out the edges. A fluffy brush would sometimes cause the eyeshadows to lay on the lid in a patchy way that I was unable to smooth out with blending. The lighter matte shades generally applied fine with a fluffy brush.

The mattes have a similar texture across the board, although some of them are more loosely pressed and powdery while others are quite firmly pressed. The more firmly pressed ones formed a bit of hard pan during swatching but I don’t feel those ones performed any worse than any of the other shades.

The matte highlight shades (So Pale, Vanilla Bean, and Banana Split) are a smidge less pigmented than the rest but they still have plenty of color payoff. When blending the matte shades, sometimes I ran into issues with not being able to stretch the color out. Normally I am able to place a color in the crease and blend it fairly far upward into the transition area. There is a limit to how far some of them will move from where they are initially placed.

The four shades that are not included in the palettes are Peach Smoothie, Grandstand, Flame Thrower and Mystical. I like all of these and I’m glad I included them in my order. Personally I think peach smoothie is an essential transition shade to have, especially if you are fair and love warm toned and orange-y eyeshadow looks. There really isn’t a good substitute in the pre-made palettes. Grandstand is another one that I’d recommend. Being a bronze-y rose gold, it is the kind of shade that I think tends to be universally loved by most people.

Wear time was pretty average for me. I didn’t find that they lasted much longer than most other shadows I wear but I also didn’t think they creased on me super early in the day.

Pros:

Very large selection of neutral eyeshadows with a wide variety of undertones.

Pretty good selection of colorful eyeshadows. I would like to see an expansion on the greens/blues and lighter/brighter shade options.

Great color payoff.

Fallout during application was generally very minimal.

Elimination of the analysis paralysis phenomenon. This set provides you with a large number of shadows across a variety of tones and depths without having to pick colors one by one on the website.

The idea of having a gradient of shades organized this way does make it easy to pick out a select few shades to create your own palettes. However, this took me some getting used to. After having used this palette for over a month, I now feel I know what every color looks like, how dark each one is, what undertones they all have, etc. In the very beginning it was a little difficult for me to come up with color combinations but now I’m really happy with how it’s organized.

Cons:

If you are accustomed to dustier formulas that are incredibly easy to blend, this formula may take some getting used to. The majority of the shades stay where I initially apply them, so I can go ham blending without worrying about them dusting away. However, this comes at the price of spending more time getting a smooth blend.

I experienced a small degree of patchiness with several of the shades, especially the cooler tones and darker shades. It wasn’t terrible and wouldn’t deter me from using those shades. However, if you already have shades like those that you love and are extremely picky about how smoothly an eyeshadow lays on the lid, then you might want to skip the cooler tones and darker shades.

Enough similar shades that buying the whole matrix set can feel like a waste. The deep browns in the neutral palette do have different undertones that are obvious when you look at them in the pans, however on the eye, they are all extremely similar to each other. It’s possible the difference may be more visible on someone with a deeper skintone than me.

In the colorful palette, some of the columns don’t have enough difference in depth from light to dark, in my opinion. For example, creating a monochromatic look using the column that includes Current Obsession, Curfew, and Eternally Grateful does not end up looking balanced.

Shades that are extremely similar:

Tuscan Sun and Pinky Promise

Curfew and Eternally Grapeful

Seas The Day and Time Travel

Espresso Yourself and Deja Brew

Dark Roasted and Coffee Before Talkee

Worth buying?

$220 for both palettes is definitely a hit to the wallet, but I feel like the price is fair for what you get. If you are a makeup artist and you need to have wide variety of shades in a relatively compact space, this is not a bad way to achieve that. If you enjoy playing with color and makeup is more of a creative outlet for you, I think you would like this set. Keep in mind that most of the colors are pretty muted and a large percentage of them are on the darker side. I can get some lighter looks out of these shadows but I feel like the overall range of colors combined with the formula make these eyeshadow more ideal for those that enjoy intense color and darker, smokier looks. It’s also going to be a better fit for those that don’t mind shadows that require more time and effort to blend out. If you prefer eyeshadows that are super quick and easy to work with, you might want to err on the side of caution and maybe just pick up a few shades to see how you like the formula.

Makeup Geek Matrix Palettes | Makeup Geek Eyeshadows

Makeup Geek Matrix Color Palette | Makeup Geek Eyeshadows

Shades

So Pale

Vanilla Bean

Shimma Shimma

Banana Split

So Pale: Very pale nude with subtle yellow undertones. Vanilla Bean: Pale nude with peach undertones. Shimma Shimma: Pale peachy nude with a subtle satin finish. Banana Split: Light nude with yellow undertones.

Bedrock

Clean Slate

Take For Granite

Smoke Signal

Bedrock: Light taupe with very subtle red undertones. Clean Slate: Medium taupe with red undertones. Take For Granite: Deep taupe with very subtle red undertones. Smoke Signal: Deep charcoal grey.

Beach Please

Latte As Usual

Espresso Yourself

Dark Roasted

Beach Please: Soft, cool tan Latte As Usual: Soft cool brown Espresso Yourself: Cool, rich cocoa brown Dark Roasted: Neutral, Deep true brown. Didn’t like this one.

Creme Brulee

Honey Badger

Cheetah Bear

Chocolate Wasted

Creme Brûlée: Light, warm brown Honey Badger: Warm, soft reddish brown Cheetah Bear: Warm, medium reddish brown Chocolate Wasted: Warm, deep reddish brown

Prim and Proper

Blushing Beauty

Vintage

Americano

Prim and Proper: Cool, light muted pink. Blushing Beauty: Muted cool pink Vintage: Cool, muted grey purple Americano: Cool, deep plum brown

Cupcake

Getting Figgy With It

Bitten

Give Me The Dirt

Cupcake: Medium warm pink Getting Figgy With It: Warm, rich plum brown Bitten: Muted, warm burgundy Give Me The Dirt: Warm, deep Swiss Chocolate

Had Me At Yellow

Tiki Hut

Deja Brew

Coffee Before Talkee

Had Me At Yellow: Warm, muted soft yellow Tiki Hut: Warm, muted yellow brown Deja Brew: Warm cocoa brown Coffee Before Talkee: Neutral, deep cocoa brown

Illuminaughty

Olive You

Spilled Tea

Enchanted Forest

Illuminaughty: Light green with warm yellow undertone Olive You: Soft, warm olive green Spilled Tea: Cool, medium moss green Enchanted Forest: Cool, deep ivy green

Medieval

Blue Me Away

Seas The Day

Time Travel

Medieval: Cool bright teal with a deep blue undertone Blue Me Away: Muted, cool tropical blue Seas The Day: Medium teal blue Time Travel: Cool, deep teal

Day Dreamer

Current Obsession

Curfew

Eternally Grapeful

Day Dreamer: Cool Light Purple Lilac Current Obsession: Cool bright lavender (slightly warmer toned than Curfew) Curfew: Cool Medium True Purple (slightly cooler toned than Current Obsession) Eternally Grapeful: Cool, deep true purple

Whimsical

On Wednesdays

Back To The Fuchsia

Wine and Dine

Whimsical: Cool, pale pink silver On Wednesdays: True cool pink Back To The Fuchsia: True warm fuchsia pink Wine and Dine: Rich, warm purple

Starry Eyed

Tuscan Sun

Pinky Promise

Berry Shady

Starry Eyed: Neutral, light beige champagne with a pink undertone Tuscan Sun: Soft, neutral salmon pink Pinky Promise: Medium, neutral salmon pink Berry Shady: Neutral Rich Berry

In The Spotlight

Peach For The Stars

Staycation

Hot Tamale

In The Spotlight: Warm soft pink with coral undertone Peach For The Stars: True warm peach Staycation: True, warm coral pink Hot Tamale: Warm, deep bright raspberry

Legend

Chickadee

Morocco

Brick House

Legend: Light green with warm yellow undertone Chickadee: Warm medium orange Morocco: Rich, warm medium orange Brick House: Warm, deep burnt orange

Peach Smoothie

Grandstand

Flame Thrower

Mystical

Peach Smoothie: Warm, pale muted peach Grandstand: Medium warm coppery brown Flame Thrower: True warm copper Mystical: Warm deep plum

Looks

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #1

Products and shades used:

Nars Smudge Proof Tinted Eyeshadow Base in Light

So Pale – Brow bone

Vanilla Bean – Inner corner

Banana Split – Transition

Bedrock – Lower lashline, fill in brows

Smoke Signal – All over lid, blended into crease

Olive you – Crease

Illuminaughty – Center of lid

NYX Skinny Black Liner

Fenty Full Frontal Mascara

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #2

Products and shades used:

Nars Smudge Proof Tinted Eyeshadow Base in Light

So Pale – Brow bone

Vanilla Bean – Inner corner

Chickadee – Crease, blended into transition area, lower lashline transition

Getting Figgy With It – All over lid, blended into crease, lower lashline, close to the lashes

Legend – Center of lid

NYX Skinny Black Liner

Fenty Full Frontal Mascara

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #3

Products and shades used:

Nars Smudge Proof Tinted Eyeshadow Base in Light

So Pale – Brow bone, inner corner

Peach Smoothie – Transition, lower lashline, inner lid

Peach For The Stars – Crease

Hot Tamale – Outer lid

Staycation – Center of lid

Starry Eyed – Inner lower lashline

Covergirl Lash Exact Mascara in Black Brown – Lower lashes

ColourPop Honeydude Creme Gel Liner

Fenty Full Frontal Mascara

Viseart Brow Palette – Used lightest powder shade to fill in brows

Mac Shape + Shade Brow Tint Pen – Just the liquid side

Loreal Color Corrector Palette – I used the peachy shade to clean up around my brows

Pixi Brow Gel

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #4

Products and shades used:

Tarte Shape Tape in Light – Under eye concealer, clean up around brows

Soap and Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder – Set concealer

Elf Putty Eye Primer in Rose

Vanilla Bean – Inner corner, brow bone

Tuscan Sun – Inner lid, inner crease

On Wednesdays – Outer lid, outer crease

In The Spotlight – Center of lid

Viseart Brow Palette – I used the two lightest powder shades to fill in my brows

Mac Shape + Shade Brow Tint Pen in Taupe – Just the liquid side

Fenty Beauty Full Frontal Mascara

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #5

Products and shades used:

Vanilla Bean – Inner corner, brow bone

Cupcake – Transition, lower lashline transition

Bitten – Crease, lower lashline

Give Me The Dirt – Outer lid, blended into crease

Mystical – Center of lid

Whimsical – Inner lid

Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Hydrating Longwear Foundation in 120

Urban Decay Stay Naked Concealer in 30NN

Soap and Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder

Viseart Brow Palette

Fenty Beauty Full Frontal Mascara

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #6

Products and shades used:

Vanilla Bean – Inner corner, brow bone

Prim and Proper – Transition, lower lashline transition

Blushing Beauty – Crease

Vintage – Lower in the crease

Americano – Lower lashline, close to lashes, outer lid

Granstand – Center of lid

Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Hydrating Longwear Foundation in 120

Urban Decay Stay Naked Concealer in 30NN

Soap and Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder

Viseart Brow Palette

Fenty Beauty Full Frontal Mascara

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #7

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #7

Products and shades used:

So Pale – Brow bone

Banana Split – Transition 1, inner corner

Had Me At Yellow – Transition 2, lower lashline transition

Chocolate Wasted – Crease, lower lashline, close to lashes

Spilled Tea – Center of lid

Enchanted Forest – Outer lid

Illuminaughty – Inner corner, went over top of Banana Split

Nars Pro Prime Tinted Eyeshadow Base in Light

Ulta Gel Eyeliner in Black Out – Waterline

Fenty Beauty Full Frontal Mascara – Top lashes

Covergirl Lash Exact mascara in Black Brown – Lower lashes

Loreal True Match Lumi Foundation in N1-2

Too Faced Born This Way Concealer in Almond

Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder – Set foundation

Hourglass Veil Translucent Powder – Touch up

Viseart Structure Brow and Eyeshadow Palette – Lightest powder shade on bottom row

Mac Shape + Shade Brown Tint Pen – Liquid side only

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Look #8

Products and shades used:

Shimma Shimma – Inner corner, brow bone

Creme Brulee – Transition

Cheetah Bear – Crease

Honey Badger – Outer part of lower lashline

Starry Eyed – Inner part of lower lashline/li>

Wine and Dine – Outer lid

Vanilla Bean – Inner lid

Day Dreamer – Center of lid

Nars Pro Prime Tinted Eyeshadow Base in Light

It Cosmetics CC Cream SPF 50+ in Fair

Laura Mercier Secret Camo Concealer in SC-1

Soap and Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder – Set foundation

Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder – Touch up

Wander Beauty Powder Foundation – Add coverage

Viseart Structure Brow and Eyeshadow Palette – Two lightest powder shades on the bottom row

Mac Shape + Shade Brown Tint Pen in Taupe – Just the liquid side

Fenty Beauty Full Frontal Mascara

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Review This review is for the Makeup Geek Matrix Mega Set ($220), which includes two magnetic palettes full of most of their single eyeshadows.

[zeroviraluniverse-blog]

Facebook data row: Cambridge Analytica academic a 'scapegoat'

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/facebook-data-row-cambridge-analytica-academic-a-scapegoat/

Facebook data row: Cambridge Analytica academic a 'scapegoat'

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionDr Aleksandr Kogan says he has been treated ‘unfairly’ by Cambridge Analytica and Facebook

An academic who created an app which harvested data from 50 million users says he has been made “a scapegoat” for Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.

Dr Aleksandr Kogan completed work for Cambridge Analytica in 2014, but said he had no idea the data would be used for Donald Trump’s election campaign.

The psychology academic told the BBC he wanted the data so he could model human behaviour through social media.

Facebook says Dr Kogan violated the site’s policies.

The Cambridge University researcher developed a personality survey called This is Your Digital Life.

About 270,000 users’ data was collected, but the app also collected some public data from users’ friends.

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie said that, as a result, the data of about 50 million users was harvested for the analysis firm.

Both Cambridge Analytica and Facebook deny any wrongdoing.

The story so far

How to protect your Facebook data

Facebook’s biggest challenge yet

Have you chosen not to open social media accounts? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

Dr Kogan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he was “stunned” by the allegations made against him as he was advised the app was entirely legal.

He said: “The events of the past week have been a total shell shock, and my view is that I’m being basically used as a scapegoat by both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica when… we thought we were doing something that was really normal.

“We were assured by Cambridge Analytica that everything was perfectly legal and within the terms of service.”

He said he was following advice given to him by Cambridge Analytica, and added he had “no reason to doubt” that was breaking any policy with Facebook.

He added: “One of the great mistakes I did here was I just didn’t ask enough questions.”

He also said the accuracy of the dataset had been “exaggerated” by Cambridge Analytica, and said the dataset was more likely to hurt Mr Trump’s campaign.

What is the row about?

In 2014 a Facebook quiz invited users to find out their personality type.

As was common with apps and games at that time, it was designed to harvest not only the user data of the person taking part in the quiz, but also the data of their friends.

Facebook has since changed the amount of data developers can gather in this way.

Mr Wylie alleges that the data of some 50 million users, mainly in the US, was harvested without their explicit consent via their friend networks.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionFormer Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie says the firm planted fake news

He claims the data was sold to Cambridge Analytica – no connections with Cambridge University ��� which then used it to psychologically profile people and deliver pro-Trump material to them.

The firm’s chief executive Alexander Nix – who was suspended on Tuesday – was secretly recorded in a Channel 4 investigation saying the London-based company ran Donald Trump’s digital campaign during the 2016 US election.

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Media captionTuesday’s broadcast showed Mr Nix saying he met Donald Trump ‘many times’

He said that the company’s work, including research, analytics and targeted campaigning, allowed the Republican candidate to win with a narrow margin of “40,000 votes” in three states.

“We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy,” he added.

Before Channel 4 News had broadcast any of the secret filming, Mr Nix told the BBC’s Newsnight programme he felt the firm had been “deliberately trapped”.

What investigations are under way?

On Tuesday a parliamentary committee called for Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg to give evidence about the use of personal data by Cambridge Analytica.

Damian Collins, the chairman of the Commons inquiry into fake news, accused Facebook of previously “misleading” the committee, and said it was “now time to hear from a senior Facebook executive with the sufficient authority to give an accurate account of this catastrophic failure of process”.

US senators have called on Mr Zuckerberg to testify before Congress about how Facebook will protect users.

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Media captionMark Zuckerberg in 2009: Facebook privacy is central

The head of the European Parliament said it would investigate to see if the data was misused.

The consumer watchdog the US Federal Trade Commission – which has the power to levy large fines – has also reportedly opened an investigation into Facebook.

On Tuesday a Cambridge University spokesperson said they had “sought and received assurances” from Dr Kogan that no University data, resources or facilities were used for his work and they had found no evidence to contradict that, but were writing to Facebook to “request all relevant evidence in their possession”.

The UK’s Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said she would be applying to court for a warrant to search the offices of Cambridge Analytica.

There have also been calls for an investigation into the work Cambridge Analytica carried out during the 2013 election in Kenya.

How have Facebook and Cambridge Analytica responded?

Both firms deny doing anything wrong.

Facebook has said the data was obtained legitimately, but Cambridge Analytica failed to delete it when told to do so.

A Facebook spokesperson said Dr Kogan was not allowed to transfer data to Cambridge Analytica, a third-party who would use the set for commercial purposes.

They added that sharing users’ friends data outside the app was also against Facebook’s rules.

The firm will send representatives to Washington on Wednesday to answer questions before the US Congress.

For its part, Cambridge Analytica says it deleted the data when told to by Facebook.

The firm suspended its boss Alexander Nix on Tuesday following his comments which appeared to suggest tactics his company could use to discredit politicians online.

However, the firm said the report of comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 News had “grossly misrepresented” Mr Nix’s comments.

Before Channel 4 News had broadcast any of the secret filming, Mr Nix told the BBC’s Newsnight programme he felt the firm had been “deliberately entrapped”.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionMr Nix spoke to BBC Newsnight before the Channel 4 report was aired on Monday night. He declined to be interviewed after the undercover footage was broadcast

What does Cambridge Analytica do?

On its website, it says: “Our team of PHD data scientists, expert researchers, and seasoned political operatives have produced decisive results for campaigns and initiatives throughout the world.”

It had been credited with helping Donald Trump to presidential victory.

The global reach of Cambridge Analytica

How do I protect my Facebook account?

Log in to Facebook and visit the App setting page

Click edit button under Apps, Websites and Plugins

This will mean that you won’t be able to use third-party sites on Facebook and if that is is a step too far, there is a way of limiting the personal information accessible by apps while still using them:

Log into Facebook’s App settings page

Unclick every category you don’t want the app to access, which includes bio, birthday, family, religious views, if you are online, posts on your timeline, activities and interests

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Digital fingerprints are getting bigger as people share more information online

There are some others pieces of advice too.

“Never click on a ‘like’ button on a product service page and if you want to play these games and quizzes, don’t log in through Facebook but go directly to the site,” said Paul Bernal, a lecturer in Information Technology, Intellectual Property and Media Law in the University of East Anglia School of Law.

How else can you protect your Facebook data?

Have you deliberately chosen not to open social media accounts? Tell us why by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

You can also contact us in the following ways:

WhatsApp: +44 7555 173285

Text an SMS or MMS to 61124 (UK)

Please read our terms & conditions

[newsonlinegroup-blog]

6 shocks from the Mamma Mia 2 trailer

Image copyright UniversalImage caption Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep in a scene from the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again trailer Here We Go Again. The first trailer for the highly-anticipated sequel to Mamma Mia, which sees Lily James join the cast as a young Donna, dropped on Thursday. Earlier versions of it may have leaked on the internet earlier this week but we don't talk about those so hush now. When it was released in 2008, the first Mamma Mia movie briefly held the title as the highest-grossing film release in UK film history. (Of course, that was before the release of Skyfall, Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Basically, Mamma Mia is now in ninth place.) We've been through all two minutes and 24 seconds of the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again trailer (several times, to be honest). And we have the following questions. 1. Where in the name of Chiquitita is Meryl Streep Image copyright Universal So there we were, clicking on the trailer on a perfectly pleasant Thursday morning, expecting unfiltered, light, fluffy, Abba-drenched escapism. But no: the Mamma Mia 2 producers have decided to obliterate any false sense of security we'd all been foolishly lulled into in the promo's opening seconds. As flashback images of Meryl Streep run across the screen, Julie Walters tells Amanda Seyfried: "Your mother was the bravest person we ever met." Hold the phone. (Ring Ring etc.) Did Mamma Mia just kill off Meryl Streep? SHE WASN'T EVEN THAT OLD. Perhaps the actress has been too busy over the last couple of years winning awards to make room in her schedule for a mimed rendition of Voulez-Vous. But still, if Donna Sheridan is dead in Mamma Mia 2, we are already done with 2018. 2. Haven't we seen Jeremy Irvine do something like this before Image copyright Universal In 2013's The Railway Man, Jeremy Irvine played a young Colin Firth. He looked like a young Colin Firth, he sounded like a young Colin Firth, he WAS a young Colin Firth - as Louis Walsh might have said. So now that he's climbed aboard Mamma Mia 2, and Colin Firth is also in Mamma Mia 2, surely he'll be reprising his role as a younger version of the Oscar-winning actor? Not quite. He's playing a young Pierce Brosnan instead, which - if we didn't already know from having just looked it up on IMDB - we certainly know now from his hairstyle in the trailer. 3. Oh my god. It's Cher. Image copyright Universal With blonde hair and sunglasses. And apparently she's playing Meryl Streep's mum, as Amanda refers to her as "Grandma". In real life Cher is only three years older than Meryl Streep so that pregnancy must have been quite the medical breakthrough. "Grandma, you weren't invited," smiles Amanda in the trailer - the kind of smile that also says "oh my good look it's Cher I can't Belieeeeeve it." "That's the best kind of party little girl," Cher replies. Well put. 4. And look - there's Will from W1A. Image copyright Universal He's back in all his swooshy-haired glory, and this time he isn't just carrying Hugh Bonneville's fold-up bicycle. Yeah, no yeah, no cool, yeah no worries. 5. The songs. THE SONGS. Image copyright Universal For so long, we've all been kept awake, night after night, wondering which Abba classics will make it into the movie sequel. We are now three songs closer to having the answer - as the trailer features I Have A Dream, Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia. Earlier this year, Benny Andersson from Actual Abba told BBC Radio 2 that the film would feature Angel Eyes, I Wonder and When I Kissed The Teacher. But given how many of the big songs were mopped up by the first film, they don't have many other tunes left to play with. The major omissions from the first included Fernando and Knowing Me, Knowing You. Beyond that, there may have to be some more repeats. Which is fine by us, as long as one of them is Waterloo - because that one was cruelly relegated to the credits in the first film. 6. There's a new girlband in town. Image copyright Universal Amanda Seyfried now appears to be performing with her mum's pals, played by Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, in the new film. It works both as a touching tribute to Streep, and also as a vision of what the Sugababes might have looked like after another few decades of line-up changes. Anyway, whatever other surprises are in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, we are so ready for this film. For now, we say Thank You For The Trailer, which you can watch below. Read the full article

[fromnothingtonovel-blog]

By Whitney Jones

Have you ever been skimming through Pinterest and seen one of those charts that outlines the words you should ABSOLUTELY RIGHT NOW edit out of your manuscript?

I know you have, and if you haven’t, head on over to our Writing Resources We Love  board on Pinterest to see some for yourself.

This is the infographic I used to edit the current final draft of my novel.

This is the infographic I used to edit the current final draft of my novel.

I mention these resources because I used one when I was reducing the word count of my middle grade novel. I’ve never really believed in a one-size-fits-all approach to writing (or much of anything else), so I approached the exercise and the charts with a healthy dose of skepticism. I was using them, but analyzing their usefulness at the same time.

In today’s post, I’m going to share what I learned by using two of the oft-suggested “edit-out” words–“maybe” and “suddenly.” By looking at how I edited these words, or didn’t edit them, out of my novel, I’ll show you why these charts are ultimately useful and how to use them correctly.

Verdict: Useful!

“Suddenly” is one of those words that you’re told to edit out of your document. In fact you’re often told not to write it at all.

But why is that? Isn’t “suddenly” a perfectly fine word? I had this question myself when I began editing my second or third manuscript. It was only after I completed editing these words out of my manuscript or picking and choosing when to edit it out and when to keep it that I finally understood why getting rid of words like “suddenly” is crucial for clear, concise prose.

The word itself is actually vague. It’s filler, and it could be replaced with stronger language, verbs, descriptors to achieve the same idea… but better. Here’s an example from my novel to show you what I mean.

Earlier Draft:

…he was no longer sure what had happened that day in the room when evening shadows had suddenly become afternoon sunbeams and old, faded green wallpaper had become new and vibrant once more.

Revised Draft:

…he was no longer sure what had happened that day in the room when evening shadows had flickered into afternoon sunbeams and old, faded green wallpaper had exploded new and vibrant before his eyes.

If we compare the two versions, you see that I was able to replace “suddenly”–which I was using to mean in a sudden and unexpected manner–with “flickered” and “exploded.” These two verbs are much more active and show the reader how startling and shocking the experience was in a much clearer way than “suddenly” ever could.

Just based on this example, we see how useful the editing charts can be.

Caveat: Use Thoughtfully

As with everything, however, we shouldn’t follow advice blindly, not even advice handed down from on high by the writing gods.

THOU SHALT NOT USE WORDS LIKE SUDDENLY OR MAYBE!

Okay, writing gods, you’re mostly right. But I found while using this chart that I couldn’t just replace or delete every forbidden word. I had to be thoughtful about which ones to keep and which ones to edit out. In most cases, the unnecessary and forbidden words could be replaced to improve the text, like in my examples above. In other instances, the forbidden words actually helped create character through dialogue or establish tone and mood.

Take a look at these moments in my novel when I decided to keep the forbidden word “maybe”:

Character Thought:

Stella opened her mouth to say that maybe she wanted to be a spinster.

The word “maybe” works here because it’s within the character’s thoughts. It reflects her insecurity. She’s not sure. And she’s a kid. Not subject to the laws of the writing gods, “maybe” would be part of her vocabulary.

Tone and Mood: 

The evening light darkened to a deep blue. Stella felt it settle over the day and finally, finally, slow time down. Just a little bit. Maybe she could rest, just a bit. Maybe she could breath, just for a little while. The garden air smelled like pansies and made her feel dreamy and quiet.

Maybe time would stop and rest with her. Maybe the doctor was wrong, and they had a little bit of time left.

In this section, I was playing with the presentation of time through prose. In the sections previous to these two paragraphs, time was speeding up, it was out of control, but here I wanted to create a sense of time slowing down. The repetition of “maybe” helps with this. “Maybe” has a softness to it–no hard consonants here; even the “b” sound is softened by the “y.” I considered cutting the word from this passage, thinking there were better ways to create the tone and pace I was going for, but ultimately, I decided to keep it.

***

So, writers, find and use these very useful charts. I promise you’ll benefit from them. But don’t do so thoughtlessly. This is an opportunity to make sure you use every word wisely and purposefully. Take it!

  What are you favorite editing resources and tools? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

  Edit like a rockstar: Here’s why you don’t need that word Have you ever been skimming through Pinterest and seen one of those charts that outlines the words you should ABSOLUTELY RIGHT NOW edit out of your manuscript?

[myfairolinda]

Guest Post: Finding Your Creative Process

Finding your creative process can be a unique experience for each of us. When we are drawn to create there are so many sources for inspiration. My friend Shannon is an amazing artist. Not only is she an award winning fine artist who specialize in oil paintings but she’s fantastically creative. She specializes in Contemporary Coastal Vignettes and is currently working on a series of beautiful abstracts. I asked Shannon to share her thoughts on creativity, what inspires her and how she finds her creative process.

 * * * * *

My friend Naomi asked me recently how I get my creative juices flowing and it was a joy to think about this and share my process.

A perfectly inspired creative day for me begins with being outside in the morning! There has never been anything that inspires me more creatively than being outside experiencing God’s awesome canvas. Especially here in California where I have lived for most of my life. Now that I live a block from the ocean, either a beach walk, bike ride or a Yoga by the Sea class are my favorites. In a pinch, a simple walk around the block with my puppy works well too. Not much inspires me more than crashing waves or hanging out at a local harbor watching commercial fishing boats come and go while giant sea lions bark and play in the water. I also love watching giant herons and dolphins. Another of my favorite things to do is go whale watching, it feels so primal and calming to see them move through the water. When I’m in the Conejo Valley in Southern California where I’ve lived the longest, a hike through a local canyon or an oak tree forest hoping for a deer sighting is another favorite way to inspiration. All those interesting shadows and plays of light through the craggy trees get my mind racing on what the next best way I can capture that feeling will be so I can share it with someone else.

There has never been anything that inspires me more creatively than being outside experiencing… Click To Tweet

Finding your creative process:

Why do you love creativity?

I don’t remember ever NOT being creative so for me, it’s just a part of who I am. Even as a little girl I was always making something. I remember if I ever asked for a gift of any kind, it was always something I could use to create something new. I remember by eight years old begging my mother for a guitar and as soon as I got it and taught myself to play it. I began writing my own songs rather than play ones I heard on the radio. I also remember asking for and receiving a sewing machine at age 7 and a leather tool making kit soon after. I didn’t seem to have a knack for sewing but I loved writing poetry and making music. Finally in college I found oil painting to be my favorite way to express myself.

What inspires you?

I am most inspired by water of any kind. I love the ocean, lakes, waterfalls and even vernal pools. I love seeing the reflections and hearing the sounds of water and thinking about ways to create something that can translate that feeling of hope I feel around water. Growing up I always wanted to visit my grandmother near the beach. As soon as we got there I’d beg anyone to take me down to the water. There are long rock walls surrounding that area in New York and I loved walking up on them all the way to the sea. There used to be fireworks every summer weekend. Watching the reflections of all those colors made me feel like all I wanted to do was shout with joy and create something! I promised myself as soon as I graduated high school I would live near the ocean and that’s exactly what I did.

What are your sources of inspiration?

I am truly never, ever NOT inspired! I think this is because I’m fascinated by many things. I wonder how things grow: from tree bark to vegetables to grapes and I love gardening in my yard. Tending to the garden is also a wonderful stress reliever and serving things I’ve grown makes me smile. I’m always wondering what’s underneath all water sources, how things work, how other creative people make what they do, and what their life stories are. I even wonder what animals might be thinking when they look at you. I even wonder about the creatures who lived in empty shells I’ve found over the years. I am astonished by the variety in nature I am compelled to create things that celebrate this. Honestly I get cranky if I’m traveling and forget my sketchbook or camera or something to write ideas down on. I love my iphone because it’s a great way to record things I see and experience.

How do you come up with ideas?

I love listening to classical music or Italian opera alone in my car when I’m going to art functions, this relaxes and inspires me so much especially since traffic in Southern California is a consistent nuisance but driving along a country road during a New England fall is pretty close to perfect inspiration! Most ideas I’ve had over the years feel divinely inspired and I thank my creator daily. Thank you Lord above! I create best when I am alone in a quiet environment. I’ve also had a lot of inspiration from traveling in my youth and encourage other young people to travel too! These days a simple day trip to wine country or a boat trip to a local islands is enough to inspire me for months at a time. But I often get my best ideas while I’m cooking a nice meal or late at night as I’m falling asleep. Also, in the middle of the night if I wake up in that sort of twilight state, I seem to think clearly about brand new ideas. I have always kept paper or a writing pad on my nightstand and often scribble words down so I don’t forget them. I used to write songs for years like this and if I didn’t write down lyrics that came to me easily at night, or sing a melody into a little tape machine I used to have, they’d evaporate in my brain by morning. Now that I’ve been expressing myself as a fine artist for many years, I seem to think in terms of a series of work I want to focus on for a few months or even a year or two at a time. I have always created in batches where I’ll need to paint wildly for months and be prolific, and then I’ll have to have a month of quiet rest to tend to my home and family. This is what inspires me the most, as I am definitely a homebody.

I think creativity can take so many forms and one thing can inspire another. I’ve always done silly little things like name my car over the years. I also think everyone should have a theme song or a fight song to lift them up when they’re low. Mine is brown-eyed girl and it reminds me of when I was young and dreaming big which carries over to present day and always being open to new experiences. I believe in doing hard things outside one’s comfort box and I think when you do, it makes you braver to try other new things. I’ve played several instruments over the years and yet when I think about learning to play the cello one day I get goose bumps. I love the Italian language and took 2 years of it in college but now that I don’t remember as much, I look forward to immersing myself in that again too. I really also want to learn to captain a boat and it’s this kind of thing that informs my art process and keeps me excited to wake up and paint every day possible!

Creativity can take so many forms and one thing can inspire another. Click To Tweet

 * * * * *

Shannon is an award winning fine artist Living in Southern California. She paints “Contemporary Coastal Vignettes,” seascapes, landscapes & still life in oil using palette knives & brushes & sometimes watercolor. 

She’s been painting away on her new series ODYSSEY THROUGH OXNARD which explores the paradox of old and new alongside Oxnard’s unique history and complex culture. She’s completed more than 10 paintings in this series already. Her series was on display in October at the Channel Islands Maritime Museum where she was their first Artist in Residence! Find out more about Shannon and see her beautiful artwork at http://ift.tt/1R6o81g and on Instagram: @shannoncelia.

The post Guest Post: Finding Your Creative Process appeared first on My Fair Olinda.

from Guest Post: Finding Your Creative Process

[whitneykt]

I know it’s been a while since I have posted anything here.  We have just been really busy trying to get our 2016 Taxes done and setting up all of the insurance, social security, pensions and medicare plans for hubby and I since he retired.  I can’t believe that was 2 months ago next week!!  Time is flying by so fast and we still haven’t been able to take a trip!!

Looking on the bright side . . . which I tried to do as much as possible . . .  since we haven’t been able to leave on a trip, we are able to watch our 2 grand sons play football.  The 10 yr old is playing tackle football and is doing really well . . . to our surprise!!  He is a very ‘sensitive’ boy but he’s showing his ‘tough side’ in football and he’s loving it.  The 6 yr old is playing flag football.  At this age it’s pretty much just watching them run around the field trying to grab a flag.  And the baby, who is 3, gets to watch his big brothers waiting for his turn to get on the field.

The RAM has been in the shop for about a month due to all kinds of complications.  I am not a mechanical kind of person.  So I will give you the short version . . . drive shaft and transmission are brand new.  (I think that’s what hubby told me).  I just know that he kept telling me “When he gets done with it, we’ll have a brand new truck”.  That is all that matters to me.  That and the fact that now we are safe to pull the 5th Wheel!!!  Especially since she got some new shoes too.  Yep . . . we took off the really cool tires and opted for more safe and a more highway friendly tires.

(Top picture – mud tires; Bottom Picture – more highway friendly tires)

Now that the truck is out of the shop, we could FINALLY get the 5th wheel inspected and tagged!!  But doing so wasn’t without problems. Why would anything we do concerning this truck and RV be easy???  When we went to the storage unit to just check on the RV . . . you know, since it’s been so long since we’ve seen her . . . guess what we find?  The batteries were completely dead!!  AND, that was with the battery disconnect off (or is it on?)!!  In any case, we were told that when you use that switch, the batteries will not discharge . . . WRONG!!  Thanks to the Vilano Facebook group I’m in, I found out that the hydraulic lifts can still drain the battery even with you use the disconnect switch.  So you should disconnect the ground (black) terminal on the batteries when it’s in storage.  WHY OH WHY did the dealership not tell us this????  I purposely asked them several time “So?  When you use this battery disconnect switch, you will not be using any power . . . correct?”  I got the same answer every time “That is correct.”  Oh well . . .

One of the men on the Vilano Facebook group showed me the battery jumper/charger that he uses and we decided to get one too.  Even tho we already bought one with our first fiasco in Oklahoma City (see story here).  But that one needs power to plug it in.  This new one we purchased doesn’t need power.  You just charge it up and then it’s ready when you need it.  If you don’t use it within 30 days, they say you need to recharge it.  The STANLEY is what the man said he uses and we purchased the SCHUMACHER.  Which worked PERFECTLY I might add.  It got the batteries charged up enough to raise the legs so we could take it to get it inspected.

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Once we got it inspected, we took it back to storage and then took the paperwork to the ANNEX to get the tags where we got a ‘not so good’ surprise.  We thought we were just getting the tags for the 5th Wheel.  What we forgot . . . since we bought this RV at the end of May . . . is that we hadn’t paid the tax on the 5th Wheel yet!!!!  When you are expecting to hear “That’ll be $xx.xx ” but instead you hear “That’ll be $x,xxx.xx”, it’s quit a shock!!!  As hubby said “Well . . . there went the Tax refund!!”  FYI . . . I had just filed our 2016 Tax return a few days before this!!!!!

There are two more hurdles we need to cross over before we can actually take a trip . . . 1) Get the electrical issues on the 5th wheel fixed and all the ‘parts’ installed that were missing when we picked her up months ago and 2) get the cruise control put into the truck at the dealer we purchased it from.  The #1 issue should be easy peasy . . .we hope!!!  Probably just a bad power cord.  Keep fingers crossed that’s all it is and they don’t have to keep it for some major electrical wiring issue.  However, the #2 issue is already a problem.  Yep . . . we can’t have anything go smoothly now can we?

Hubby had been in contact with the RAM dealer in Dallas were we purchased the truck and they said they’d make good on it and replace the computer and get the cruise put in vs us doing it here and they reimbursing us for it.  However, that meant that we had to take the truck to Dallas.  Which is fine but we’ve been waiting on the parts for the RV to come in so we can make the trip to OKC, drop off the 5th Wheel, then go on to Dallas to get the truck fixed and then back to OKC to pick up the 5th Wheel.  We’ve just been so busy, we haven’t had the time to leave.  Now that we do, guess what?  Yep . . . more problems . . . the guy hubby has been talking to no longer works there.  THANKFULLY, one of the mechanics remembered hubby and the salesman conversations.  So we are waiting to hear if they are still going to honor the deal the original salesman made with us.  Just when we thought we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel . . . we see a train coming instead!!!!

Monday morning we are headed to OKC to get the 5th Wheel items handled.  It’s up in the air as to what will happen with the truck and whether we head to Dallas or not.  But we are getting closer to taking our first trip.  It may not be where we originally planned it to be, but we will take one before the end of the year . . . WE HOPE!!!!

Stay tuned for more excitement to come from “The Ole Rooster and his Hen” . . .

  UPDATE: on Truck & RV situation I know it's been a while since I have posted anything here.  We have just been really busy trying to get our 2016 Taxes done and setting up all of the insurance, social security, pensions and medicare plans for hubby and I since he retired.  

[renegadesepiida]

About 40 minutes from Paris using the metro is a world of exquisite luxury and insane history that continues to draw people from all over the world.

  Riding on the metro through the city gives short glimpses of life for a Persian. Outside the city center, where my friend Cady and I explored for the week, the train passed over crowded apartments. Packed together, the rouge and vaguely colored buildings are connected by thin wires covered with clothes. The urban city soon gives way to the suburban sprawl where the metro stop Versailles Château – Rive Gauche stands. It’s a short walk from the metro to the entrance gate to the unpaved road and I was easy for us two to overestimate how difficult it would be or how long it would take to reach the palace, so we arrived pretty early.

Cafés and small tourist shops lined one side of the street, most were still closed this early in the morning and they all seemed inconsequential especially compared to the house that was just down the road.

Even this early in the morning the line to get inside the château was growing exponentially so my friend and I elected to be a bit more clever, walk the gardens in the morning and go inside after. When the summer air rises to its less comfortable temperature.

  Take a Turn Around the Garden

  Away from the crowd, on the right side, there was a green gate. It was open, but there was no one around, no one to stop us. I nudged Cady on the shoulder and gestured to her to follow me. Acting almost like ninjas, but looking NOTHING like them we moved through the green gate toward the gardens behind the château.

After passing through a thin paved corridor the walls of garden hedges led down a wider gravel path toward a fountain, one of dozens. When the hedges open into a circle front of you, you face a roaring sea dragon serpent and several fish monsters and cupids holding their bows and arrow while riding attack swans. Riding off to a battle they will never reach. Every which way you walked would lead down another path, another hideaway. Like a labyrinth the trails twist and turn and spit you out into another hidden fountain or self-contained sculpture garden that works as a transport to the worlds of gods and monsters.

Being that it was a Tuesday, the garden itself (the hidden speakers) played beautiful music. Unfortunately that also meant the water of the fountains was turned off. This made the sculptures look more stagnant, and strained, frozen in whatever moment they were carved in. A heartbreaking example of this is the Enceladus Grove portrayed in this is the giant, Enceladus, a Titan buried underneath rocks. Stare at this figure for any extended period of time and it may be possible to hear his struggled screams as he attempts to climb out from his prison.

  Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

It’s easily possible to almost circumnavigate the full garden grounds without setting foot on the main pathway leading toward the back of the château. The path is so long that when one is standing at the far end the building itself is no longer visible. A halfway it starts to cloud into a fantasy.

More individuals stroll up and down the main path, known as the Water Perterre, and it does not limit to humans.

credit to Cady

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credit to Cady

credit to Cady

The large reflecting pools make for a perfect bath for a variety of avian life, all of which are extremely comfortable around the worldwide visitors.

The gardens continue around the side of the château, where the mystery of the large hedges disappeared and gave way to bucket planted palm trees. And around the upward bound corner steps lies the area known as the South Parterre with an extravagant design of perfectly maintained bucket and box planted bushes looking out toward an empty pool.

    While taking in the sweet-smelling air and the soft, cooling breeze a tour group stopped at the base and I overheard some information that I found a bit ironic, if I was actually able to travel in time.

  Paraphrased “While the gardens today have the sense of the flowers that are planted throughout, this wasn’t always the case. Actually, the whole garden and surrounding area smelled like shit back in the day. The pool behind you” (the one I mentioned before) “was used as the refuse pile from the house. And because the same water source was used as the water source for the fountains, feces were squirting out from every fountain.”

Understandably most everyone is the large group reacted with audible “grosses” and “yucks” and just general disgusted noises.

“Plus mixed with the lack of bathing and the exorbitant amount of perfume they wore instead, this place would not have been pleasant by our standards.”

  Time traveling has always been a dream of mine, due to my incessant curiosity and nostalgia, but I think in this case I am fine passing on this odorous time in history, especially if the gruesome ending is taken into account. I would rather not be part of the group who had their heads lopped off by the guillotine.

credit to Cady

credit to Cady

credit to Cady

credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

While the garden used to be a swamp, untamed and natural with the conquest of the French nobility the land has drastically changed. Though it’s still full of nature, it’s not wild. It’s not quite a Garden of Eden; it’s too manicured.

  Inside the Château

  Meeting up with Cady on the château side of the Water Perterre we walked back to the front the house and entered through one of the side doors of the gilded gate. On a sunny day the golden gate shone like a star, just like the accents around the roof of the house. All the detail was amazing, and with the columns and various kinds of classical stonework there were times when I thought that I had walked into a Grecian fairy tale. An odd mixed architecture of the archaeological and the fanciful.

That influence did not stop when passing through the doors. Hallways and chapels and bedrooms were glistening with golden embellishment around the elaborate paintings that covered the walls and ceilings. Even the elaborately designed wallpaper sparkled in the light. It’s no wonder all of this was not sustainable, the houses shining décor could’ve, itself, sparked the flame of revolution.

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

One room that tops them all is the Hall of Mirrors, with all the tourists moving in waves it is possible to get a glimpse of the infinity around you. The inner wall is lined with mirrors the same size and shape of the windows on the opposite side, which open to the back of the house and its enormous garden. During the sunny day the crystal chandeliers, of which there are over a dozen hanging halfway down from the painted ceiling, are dispensable when it comes to light. With the natural light seeping from the tall windows and the mirrors reflecting it all back into the room it should be called the room of garden’s glow, but I suppose that is too much of a mouthful.

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Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

Once the portrait gallery had been walked into the classic art made some of its random hilarious jokes, for those who look more closely.

Credit to Cady

Credit to Cady

“Pssh… This guy”

    With the day winding to an end and the château closing soon most of the visitors had gone. Surprisingly walking throughout Versailles led me to a weary state, though I did not want to stop my exploring. It delved into a dreamlike state where the statues could come to life and live out their existence in this paradise that has been protected from the progression of time.

  Beautiful pictures courtesy of the AMAZING CADY: follow her on Instagram  HERE

    If you want more information on Versailles itself, like tickets, maps, or its more in-depth history visit: http://en.chateauversailles.fr/.

  For the metro/train schedule visit: http://parisbytrain.com/

and the map: http://parisbytrain.com/paris-metro/

Have you ever been to Versailles? What was your favorite part? Leave a comment below. 🙂

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[touristguidebuzz]

Top 8 things to do in Perth, Australia

Out of Town Blog Top 8 things to do in Perth, Australia

Top 8 things to do in Perth

While Perth may well be the world’s most isolated city, it’s well worth making the trip if spectacular beaches, picture perfect natural bushland and a cosmopolitan city are what you’re looking for. There are few cities in the world that blend all three so perfectly. Nestled on the banks of the picturesque Swan River, and with a decade or so of mining money flooding into the city, Perth has transformed into a thriving city filled with a wide array of sites and experiences to enjoy. To help pull your itinerary together, here are 10 things to do in Perth that will ensure your visit is extra special.

1. Kings Park and the Perth Botanic Gardens

Perth Botanic Gardens

No trip to Perth is complete without a visit to King’s Park, one of the world’s biggest city parks. From here you’ll enjoy magnificent views across the Swan and Canning Rivers, as well as the ever-growing Perth skyline; perfectly manicured gardens; Federation Treetop Walkway and bushland trails that show off the Darling Ranges; and a selection of superb cafés for when you need to quench your thirst and satisfy your hunger. If you visit at just the right time, you may get to enjoy one of the many outdoor concerts that take place here as well.

2. The Bell Tower

Believe it or not, but The Bell Tower is in fact one of the world’s largest musical instruments! It is now home to the 14th century bells of St Martin from the Fields Church, the parish church of Buckingham Palace in London. You can observe bell ringing demonstrations, and even have a go yourself!

The Bell Tower By SeanMack – Own work, CC BY 2.5, http://bit.ly/2oilxEy

Located in Barrack Square, the place where the Swan River and Perth meet, you’ll enjoy 360 degree views for as far as the high can see. Make your way to the sixth floor open air observation deck and witness Perth and the Swan River at their finest.

3. Explore the Swan River by boat

Swan River By Nachoman-au – A digital photograph taken by myself., CC BY-SA 3.0, http://bit.ly/2oixsSR

The Swan River plays such an important role in the character of the city that you just have to take a boat ride to fully appreciate its beauty. There are plenty of operators taking tourists from the vibrant seaside port of Fremantle, all the way deep into the Swan Valley. With small cruise ships serving delicious food and drink, paddle steamers transporting you back to a bygone era, and electric ferries shuttling people around the city’s waterways, there’s an option to suit every taste and budget. A quick tip, make sure you give yourself at least a few hours to explore Fremantle. Its artsy vibe means you’ll see talented buskers on the streets, exceptional artworks in the local galleries, and outstanding music in the many bars and clubs that line the main streets.

4. Perth Mint

If you love gold, you’re going to love the Perth Mint. You’ll see the $50million Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin (the largest in the world), the 25.5kg Normandy Nugget, and watch molten gold being poured to form a solid gold bar. You can even hold more than $500,000 worth of gold in your hands…seriously!

Perth Mint By Moondyne – Own work by the original uploader, Public Domain, http://bit.ly/2nALZMN

If you love your history you won’t be disappointed. The latest technology helps to bring the historic search for gold in Western Australia to life in a range of attractions exhibits and demonstrations. And if you’ve got a few dollars to spend, you can take home a memento of your visit. Fine jewellery, collectable coins and gold nuggets are just some of the items available to take with you.

5. Cottesloe Beach

Cottesloe Beach By Bram Souffreau – http://bit.ly/2oiv1Ql, CC BY-SA 2.0, http://bit.ly/2nAUZkR

There are plenty of spectacular beaches in and around Perth to visit, such as Scarborough (the favourite of the locals), City Beach, Trigg and Hillarys. But the most well-known to visitors would have to be Cottesloe Beach. Enjoy great views from the grassed areas underneath the shade of the Norfolk Pines, an outstanding swimming experience in the safe waters, a bite to eat in the many restaurants and cafés that line the streets, or a few drinks in the famous Cottesloe Beach Hotel. Given Perth’s amazing weather, make sure you pack your swimmers because you’re definitely going to need them.

6. Crown Casino

Crown Casino By Nachoman-au – A digital photograph taken by myself., CC BY-SA 3.0, http://bit.ly/2oikVit

On the banks of the Swan River and just a short trip from the Perth CBD, Crown Casino is a great option if entertainment and excitement is on your itinerary. Not only is there the obvious gaming features of the casino, there are also 32 restaurants and bars, nightclub, 2,300 seat theatre, pools, day spa and retail outlets. Given all staff have RSA WA/RSG WA certifications, you can rest assured that you’ll be well looked after, whether you’re in one of the many bars or on the gaming room floor.

7. Unique Perth suburbs

Shops in Perth- things to do in Perth

Check out the cool bars, cafés and boutique retail outlets along Wolf Lane in the Perth CBD, satisfy that urge to buy something antique or vintage along Oxford Street in Leederville, or relax in a cosy café taking in the foreshore and city views in the quitter suburb of South Perth. Or, if you’re looking for something a little more upmarket, check out designer fashion outlets, fine dining restaurants and trendy cafés in Northbridge instead.

8. Perth Zoo

A numbat, one of the many species to benefit from Perth Zoo’s involvement. By Martin Pot (Martybugs at en.wikipedia), CC BY 3.0, http://bit.ly/2oixx97

With everyone’s favourite animals from right around the world all located in the one place, a visit to Perth Zoo is a fantastic day out for the whole family. Take in the beautiful Swan River as you catch a ferry from the Elizabeth Quay Jetty to Mends Street Jetty. Alternatively, catch a cab or drive your hire car from the CBD and you’ll be there in just five minutes. Once inside you’ll see Africa’s finest including rhinos, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes and lions, and many of Asia’s best as well including elephants, tigers, sun bears and orangutans. And let’s not forget our own home-grown wildlife with kangaroos, emus, koalas and dingoes all well represented. You can check out the zookeepers give talks about the various animals and enclosures throughout the venue, and watch as they feed the animals in their natural environment.

Time to plan your trip to Perth

To be honest, this list could have been 80 destinations long, not just the eight we’ve highlighted here. There is so much to see and do in Perth that highlighting them all would be take way too long to both create and read. Instead, your best bet is to head across to Perth, start with the eight listed here then go with the flow once you’re there. That’s the beauty of Perth, it’s a city where you can just go with the flow and never be bored or run out of things to do.

Also Read:

See New York City in a Whole New Light

Dumaguete City Travel Guide

Davao City Travel Guide for First-time Travelers

Top 8 things to do in Perth, Australia Melo Villareal

[culinarychatter]

The second Winchester Cocktail Week was held in mid February.  Following the success of last year’s event it was decided to include a larger programme of events for 2017. Organised by Gary & Marcus from Cabinet Rooms, they teamed up with venues all across the city and drinks partners all over the UK, to make this a week that cocktail lovers will remember.

One of the organised events was a masterclass in cocktail making; and if you are going to have a masterclass, you should really have a master.  So they found one by the name of Alistair (Ali) Burgess, part owner of Happiness Forgets in Hoxton Square, London.

  Happiness Forgets

Happiness Forgets has been in the top 12 of the World’s 50 Best Bars since 2011, winning the award for Best International Cocktail bar and given a 5 star rating by Time Out London.

It is a small intimate bar, subtley lit with a mixture of jazz, blues and modern upbeat music, relaxingly being played in the background.  You are made to feel very welcome on arrival and if you are unsure what you want to try, expertly guided around their menu.

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Cocktail Masterclass

The venue was Chococo, a luxury and fine chocolate shop and cafe located in the High Street, a regular colaborator with Cabinet Rooms and similar to Happiness Forgets, the perfect intimate location for the masterclass to be held.

The first cocktail that Ali demonstrated was a Tom Collins, but with a Japanese spin.  Gin and lemon juice combine with yuzu sake, grapefuit juice, sugar syrup and soda water.  For my palate it worked; tart, but in a good lemon curd sort of way.  An interesting oriental take on a classic.

Next was a Gin Sour named London Calling.  Gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, orange bitters and dry sherry were the ingredients.  It sounded like it was created in Andalucia, somewhere exactly between Sevilla and Jerez!  The combination of sherry and orange bitters was a mouth watering one, and it made me smile.

One of Happiness Forgets most popular cocktails is called Perfect Storm.  It is made up from dark rum, fresh ginger juice, lemon juce, honey, sugar syrup and ginger ale.  A very fine signature cocktail it would make too.  For flavour combinations, there was no harshness as you would hope, but I did enjoy how the dark rum and ginger rounded each other perfectly.  No wonder it is popular.

Ali completed his masterclass with a San Sebastian – Rye whiskey, sherry, angastora bitters, maple syrup and an interersting cocktail named Louis Balfour, made from Talisker 10 whiskey, Taylor’s port, honey, Amer Picon.  Picon is a caramel-coloured, bitter aperitive, interestingly often drunk alongside beer in France.

Choose Your Gin Wisely

Ali also gave some valuable advise about how you should consider choosing your gin.  His personal favourite was Beefeater to use as an everyday drinks cabinet gin.  This was because gin has to have a minimum retail strength of 37.5%.  Beefeater is 40% ABV.  The extra 2.5% is worth having, Ali says.  It’s a bit like perfume, where the alcohol carries the frangrance, it is the same with gin; the extra alcohol will carry more of the flavours in your cocktail.

Ali hosted a wonderful and very educational evening for cocktail and also gin lovers.  A perfect example of the quality and expertise that goes into creating Winchester Cocktail Week.

Happiness Forgets, 8-9 Hoxton Square, London N1 6NU  happinessforgets.com

Chococo, 152 High Street, Winchester SO23 9AY

  Happiness Forgets - An Alistair Burgess Cocktail Masterclass The second Winchester Cocktail Week was held in mid February.  Following the success of last year’s event it was decided to include a larger programme of events for 2017.

[jamesjingyi]

A few months ago I was anxiously awaiting the reveal of the Switch. The NX as it was codenamed was the next revolutionary step from Nintendo, it’s bounce back from the Wii U. It promised handheld and console level performance which it could interchange between very easily. I was not disappointed.

From the initial video, I was hooked. Breath of the Wild looked amazing and the ease of use of the device, the revolution of the Joy-Con controllers and the Nintendo magic sold it to me. I needed one.

After the second reveal; the introduction of initial launch titles, the different coloured Joy-Cons and more specifications on the device, I was excited and prepared my wallet to pay. This was the thing we had been waiting for, and it was coming in March. From initial reviews of the unit, many people seem to be very happy with the product and it looks very polished. Here are my thoughts after the buzz has died down slightly.

Image Credit: Forbes

The hardware specifications: Running on a CPU and GPU that are based heavily on the Tegra X1 Chipset (also used in the Nvidia Shield TV box), this console has a lot of power under its hood. It officially would be capable of 4k UHD video playback through its HDMI 1.4 connection however whether this will be used remains to be seen. Of course though, it will be more than capable of running games at 1080p. According to initial reports, the Switch’s GPU will run at 307.2MHz when undocked (in handheld mode) but 768MHz when docked. I personally think this is really clever as this allows the console to change to a more battery saving mode when handheld (using the 720p screen) whilst still being able to output better graphics and higher frame rates when connected to a 1080p TV, not retraining the user in either situation.

Image Credit: TechnoBuffalo

Whilst some were annoyed at the fact it only had a 720p screen, I maintain that it was a good decision to go in this direction. Other common complaints already quote the battery and if Nintendo had gone any higher in resolution this would have suffered greatly due to the fact that the processor would have had to output to more pixels and render more. It also would have drained the battery a lot faster due to more pixels needing power.

The screen: Going on from my last point, the screen is perfectly fine in terms of PPI. 720p at 6.2 pixels gives around 236ppi which is around what you get on a retina iPad. I’ve never had complaints about my iPad not being sharp at all and I think Nintendo was clever not to chase spec sheets and stick with something which saves on battery life and isn’t really needed at a higher resolution. It will be a massive upgrade to the low resolution 3DS anyway, and that sold very well due to its games, rather than its raw specs. As long as the Switch can run its games well at these resolutions, I’ll be happy.

The controllers: The Switch boasts a very unique experience – being able to use the same controller when docked and when on the move. This means there is no real change when going from desktop to console, a very stark contrast from the 3DS and the Wii/Wii U. I was also excited to see the different colour Joy-Cons available, however I think I’ll stay with my grey colours as I don’t want it to stand out too much (however this may change). I was also interested to see that you could buy Joy-Cons on their own individually however they were reversed from the original console, allowing you to have a fully red or fully blue console if wanted. They look like the perfect devices to play hardcore games but then also shift to handheld sharing mode to play with friends, and create the core experience for the users.

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The amount of buttons on the controllers is also really impressive in my opinion, with left and right bumpers usually hidden in usual play but revealed when using them individually. There are a wealth of buttons on the console too, along with dual analogue sticks and dual buttons. There are also dual bumper buttons when using as a full console or when using both Joy-Cons together. The controllers also have ‘HD Rumble’ which sounds promising, akin to the upgraded Taptic Engine in the iPhone 7 however this remains to be seen as initial reviews just see it as a normal vibration (Nintendo touts that you can ‘feel’ individual ice cubes in a cup through these vibrations).

The rest of the hardware: The Switch looks like it has dual speakers on the front (hopefully stereo!), power and volume buttons, an audio jack, a microSD card slot, a kickstand and a USB type C connector. I personally am really looking forward to being able to charge the Switch using something that isn’t proprietary. This means if you loose your charger or go somewhere without it, you’ll be able to purchase a cable from anywhere which could in the future also charge your tablets, laptops and phones. This also makes hooking up an external battery pack really easy which will be perfect for on the go gaming.

When docked, the switch will have 2 USB 2.0 ports on the side and one on the back along with an AC Adapter port and an HDMI 1.4 port. The function of each of these USB ports remains to be seen, hopefully providing extra functionalities in some degree.

The software experience: As revealed by this recent post from IGN, we can see a very clean user interface which looks very easy to navigate. Capturing screenshots, adding annotations and sharing all seem really easy to do and the addition of memory cards allowing up to 2TB will help hold all those games. Games can be played through a cartridge that looks a lot like an SD card but eShop titles will be available. I personally have ordered Breath of the Wild, the new Zelda game and I am really looking forward to it. The onboard 32GB will also help to fulfil woes of people with large libraries already.

The whole package: I am very impressed with Nintendo including most of the things the user will need within the pack. I was very annoyed when I opened up my New 3DS to find it without a charger but Nintendo has included everything you’d need (apart from the Pro controller). It even has a HDMI cable! The Joy-Con straps will also be very useful for kids (especially since they cost £79.99 as a pair to replace) and the grip will allow for everything to work right out the box. Games seem to be reasonably priced too and I am looking forward to seeing what else is on there. I will update this article with more news on the Nintendo online subscription service which I was disappointed to find out that you can only play the game for the month (hopefully Nintendo changes this soon) but I wait in anticipation and will update with thoughts on the console, especially when I receive it!

Nintendo Switch Fever A few months ago I was anxiously awaiting the reveal of the Switch. The NX as it was codenamed was the next revolutionary step from Nintendo, it's bounce back from the Wii U.