#the engineering projects get more to work with because he shows up with initial drafts

[ariel-s-awesome]

The materials science watchdogs are working on developing acid proof uniforms, and it's called the:

Captain Arachnomorph-Proof Technology Project.

Or the C.A.P.T. Project.

Yes, Peepers thought of the name. Yes, he's proud of it. He's insufferable about it, actually.

It's been about a year and he still brings up how he's responsible for that stroke of genius whenever it's even slightly relevant.

[system76]

System76 Spotlight with Adam Balla

Welcome to the first of an ongoing series where we get to know some of the amazing people behind System76! This week, we kick things off with one of our newest members, Adam Balla (AKA chzbacon), who has just joined the Marketing Team as our Content Producer. Learn what makes his content creation heart go pitter-patter, and why his electric smoker is his must-have cooking appliance.

When did you first become interested in Linux computer systems?

When my roommate introduced me to Slackware in 1999, he was working as a Linux system admin and he really got me interested in Linux. I was going to the Art Institute of Houston at the time for a Multimedia Design degree, and the thought that you could create your own desktop operating system really appealed to me. I didn’t need to stare at the same old tacky operating system I’d used for years.

I found myself, like many nerds of the era, at a Micro Center in the early 2000s rummaging through the discount software bins, trying to snag up multi-CD Linux distributions. This journey exposed me to several of today’s most popular Linux distros. One of those was SUSE Linux 5.3, of which I still keep the tattered book on a bookshelf as a reminder. I did however finally find my place in the world of Debian, which is where I essentially live today. Honestly not much has really changed other than using Pop!_OS as my main distribution—though like any Linux diehard, I still love to download, test, and sometimes install all the Linux.

When did you start becoming a champion for open source hardware and software?

It was a few years after that. Once I got back from the Art Institute and I was working in the area, we needed a server for the screen printing shop that I worked at. Knowing about Linux at that point, I was able to set up a server using consumer-grade gear that we could store all of our artwork and assets on. Moving forward, I set up a server for the newspaper that I worked at for a decade, which I know is still running to this day. After using Linux in that sort of environment and knowing it was good enough for a business, I knew it was good enough for me and my needs.

How did you get involved in content creation as a career?

My father was an engineer. When I was young I was always, like most kids, into drawing cars and doodles and cartoons, but I was used to having a drafting table at the house. Computing came around, and my father bought an IBM 486 and one of the original digitizing tablets, and so I got to play around with that. Eventually, he got upset because I was on the computer more than he was, so he bought me an IBM 386 to use.

Around 1995, my dad learned from a coworker about Photoshop. I begged him to get me a copy, and he finally did for Christmas. That’s when I started playing around in Photoshop and really fell into wanting to create for a living. Similar to what my father does, but maybe not as stringent in the decision that I make—no building is going to fall down from my creative process.

And that’s how I got into the whole content creation piece. I created a cover for the album of my high school bands and then started doing work for more local bands. Back then, there were no digital art courses, so I learned a lot by doing and trial/error.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

Working together as a team during the initial brainstorming process. Going through all of the ideas and details, sometimes writing them down, sometimes not, and even laughing at myself at how ridiculous an idea may sound. I love the process of the very first step. I love to set the vision for the project work from there to turn that vision into reality.

How did you first learn about System76?

I first learned about System76 through Chris Fisher and Jupiter Broadcasting. I believe they were reviewing the Leopard Extreme in 2012, on what at that time was the Linux Action Show. That’s when I started to look at System 76 and their offerings and wondered if it would be better for me to build my own Linux desktop, or adopt something and support the open source community. It’s been a little while since then, and I’ve always kept my eye on System76. Then with the release of Thelio, that really pushed me to the point of, “Wow, these guys are creating their own beautiful custom chassis and they’re incorporating different materials together. What a beautiful machine.”

I was speaking to my wife (financial advisor) about purchasing one in 2019, and I spoke to Emma and some other people at System76 about my desire for one, and I don’t know how, but Emma encouraged me not to buy one! And then I was given the opportunity to come to System76 for the Superfan event, where I was fortunate enough to be one of a dozen people who were gifted a Thelio desktop. It sits on my desk to this day; I even bought a larger desk just so I could put it up there and see it every day. I really appreciate the humble beginnings of System76, and I’m so glad to finally be a part of this amazing team.

Let's get into that creative brain. What is your favorite viral video and/or ad, and why do you love it so much?

I have a few ads that I like. I’ve always liked Honda’s messaging and their ads.

I like these ads because of the way in which they go through their history and lineage and the way that Honda itself has marketed its products as “People First” products—very similar to when they introduced their motorcycles to the US with their “You meet the nicest people on a Honda,” campaign. I think that was in 1962, so this was during the height of the motorcycle gang craze. Then comes this little Japanese motorcycle company and markets their products in a completely opposite image from the rest of the industry. They dared to be different and it paid off for them. Selling over 100 million Honda Cubs since 1958. Being given the title of most produced motor vehicle in the world.

This may come as a surprise to some, but I also really love the original Orwellian-inspired Macintosh commercial, which only aired once during the 1984 Super Bowl. Created by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow. In my opinion, these guys really created disruptive advertising, so much so that the ad still resonates today as much as it did then. While I don’t think you need to incite fear to sell a product, it showed that Apple dared to be different.

I’m not sure what constitutes a viral video these days. I’m not sure if it’s having a billion trillion views or just simply infecting one person who saw your video. One that always gives me a chuckle has to be “News Anchor Laughs At Worst Police Sketch Fail”. The honesty on the anchor's face makes me lose it every time.

When you’re not helping to lead the Open Source revolution, what do you like to do with your free time?

I really like going on walks and taking photos. Photography to me is one of the last honest art forms. What you see really is what you get. I love to tinker and make things, I have a 3D printer that my wife and I purchased as a joint valentine’s gift to each other last year. We started using it right when COVID broke out, so we made around 900 face shields which we distributed to schools, day cares, dentist's offices, anyone who needed one. That’s what we did for about the first 6 months when we first got it. Now, my wife loves to print earrings, for example, and I like to build different fun electronics projects.

I also love to cook, especially for large groups. I just got done with an Easter Weekend + Birthday celebration where we cooked 100 lbs of crawfish, 10 lbs of pork shoulder, sausage, and boudin (which is basically rice and pieces of pork that have been mixed together with seasonings and then put into a casing like sausage). One of my main requirements actually for a place in Denver is somewhere I can bring my electric smoker. It’s a must-have for any Texan.

What are you most excited about with your new role here at System76? To help change the computing landscape as we know it today. Into a future where technology is free and open. A world where you're encouraged to break things, fix things, and learn how they work. Aside from changing the world and stuff, I'm really excited to have a chance to work with such an insanely talented group of people.

[rpgmgames]

November’s Featured Game: Grimm's Hollow

DEVELOPER(S): ghosthunter ENGINE: RPG Maker 2003 GENRE: Indie RPG, Adventure WARNINGS: Discussions of death, losing a loved one, grief SUMMARY: Grimm’s Hollow is a spooky, freeware RPG where you search the afterlife for your brother. Reap ghosts with your scythe, explore haunted caves, and eat ghostly treats on your journey through death.

Download the game here! Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *BB: My name's Bruno and I did some of the music along with Nat! I’m super happy to have participated in this game! *NW: I’m Nat Wesley, a.k.a. Natbird! I’m a composer available for hire with a few projects in the works. I’m honored to have had the chance to work on the soundtrack to Grimm’s Hollow! *GH: Hello! I go by ghosthunter online; I started developing RPGs with a friend in school when we found out that we both enjoyed RPG Horror. I enjoy art, webcomics, cartoons and narrative-driven indie games a lot. I bought RM2K3 on sale and started pouring pixel art into it, before learning how to do things like chase scenes, cutscenes, etc. I used to fantasize about making my own game, drawing dungeons and ghosts in the back of my sketchbooks, before I finally started Grimm’s Hollow. Now I’m near the end of high-school, and I’m hoping the best for uni!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *GH: Grimm’s Hollow, originally, wasn’t as ambitious or personal. It was simply just going to be “my first game”, something that I could finally put my doodles and RM2K3 skills to. I wanted a game that a younger me would have enjoyed, back when I first discovered the classic RPGMaker games and replayed them constantly for those endings. That was my initial inspiration. It eventually evolved into an action turn-based RPG that relies on timing, yet it’s mostly narrative-driven. You traverse death in search of your sibling, and try to make an escape. There are unexpected pieces of me that ended up in this game, some of which I’m still noticing even now.

How long have you been working on your project? *GH: Since the summer of June 2018.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *GH: Standstill Girl, OFF by Mortis Ghost, Undertale, Over The Garden Wall, and the animation medium in general.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *GH: Many! Making your first game is such a giant learning curve, that the list of challenges goes on. I would say that the most difficult issue I encountered (and that, in some ways, I am still facing after release) is working around the limitations of the game engine I am using. I wanted to see whether creating an engaging but simple 1-party RPG in RM2K3 (without going completely custom) was feasible, and I experimented with quick time events as part of that. I worked around the engine’s built-in formulae so players could see progress when they upgraded their stats - although the game might display as defence as “10”, in reality the game stores it as 40 since the engine splits defence by 4. Since I did not want to create an RPG which was too complex for my first game, I also scrapped traditional staples such as armour or weapons. There were also issues such as having an appropriate “game over” handling event which wouldn’t shoot you back to the title screen after you lost a battle; getting RM2K3 to play a small cutscene where you faint and respawn somewhere else was tricky. I felt that if the player had to reload after a loss, it would disrupt the game flow.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *GH: Like I mentioned before, the game started off impersonal. I just had a soft spot for a spooky cute aesthetic, and I wanted to indulge in that. It was (and in its essence, still is) meant to be a short story, to keep the player invested for the short game length - nothing grandiose. The original draft did not have Baker play a role in the narrative - he was just an ordinary shopkeeper NPC. For a long time during development, Lavender did not even have a name. In the very first draft, she was a silent protagonist the player could name and customize. But she played a very active role in the final outline, so it was hard not to give her own unique voice when one emerged from the narrative naturally. I am glad I did; she grew on me quite quickly! Grimm was virtually unchanged from beginning to end. The only difference was that a close friend suggested that he seemed like he would be into drinking Oolong tea - so that’s what he offers you when you meet him. Timmy also did not go under massive overhauls like Lavender and Baker did, but his relationship with Lavender became much more fleshed out as I wrote the narrative. In other facets of the game’s design, there were not many changes to the original prototype.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *GH: It was just myself, doing the art, writing, programming, etc. But halfway through creating the second cave, I realised I would need a very specific sound for Grimm’s Hollow. So, I contacted Nat for music, but I also created a post on tumblr calling for a composer since there were many tracks to make. I met Bruno as a result! I am very happy with their work and I am so grateful I’ve got to work with them! (Some players are asking for an OST release, which is in the works).

What is the best part of developing a game? *GH: I really enjoyed the early stages of development: creating new tilesets, sprites and maps and piecing them together in the editor, then taking a small screenshot and sharing it with my friend over summer vacation … It was nice to see the game’s world slowly come together. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most from beginning to end: that sense of world-building, that sense of relaxation from making a small cosy game. The latter started to disappear as work and other responsibilities started to intrude, and pressure began to seep into development time - but I never stopped loving making the world and characters. I also want to say that, by lucky chance, I have met a lot of kind people from making my first game. I’m very grateful for that, so thank you to everyone.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *GH: All the time! Other RPG Maker 2003 projects are great inspirations for pixel art tilesets, as well as how to code harder features such as custom menus. They’re also just fun to play.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *GH: Lavender and Timmy are relatable to me in multiple ways. I can’t elaborate on Timmy since that would go into spoiler territory, but I somewhat relate to Lavender’s insistence on managing her life on her own - sometimes to her own detriment. I’d say the most fun character to write for was Grimm. He can be unintentionally silly while speaking in the most formal way, but also very caring too. Everything he does and says was easy to write, whereas I had to think harder for the interactions between everyone else - especially for very crucial scenes regarding their development. That being said, my favourite is still the game’s central two siblings. I can not pick between them for the life of me.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *GH: I wish I started testing even earlier! Not only does it give you a good sense of what’s missing, but seeing people enjoy what you’ve made yet get hindered by bugs is a very strong incentive to fix your game immediately. When I was lacking motivation or was stuck, I found that good feedback and support made me motivated again. I also wish that I could have pushed the deadline a little further, or perhaps released the game on Early Access since it will take me a while to refine post-release bugs - but as it is, the 31st of October really was the deadline for my game due to external circumstances (no, that deadline wasn’t just because it was Halloween!). Other than that, I wonder if using an updated version of RPG Maker would have produced the same game …? It’s hard to tell, but I hope people enjoy it for what it is - I will be working on that post-release patch soon!

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *GH: There are no current plans, but I would be happy to have the opportunity to improve and expand on the game. As it is, the game’s released for free and done as a hobby, so I would struggle to do that by myself.

What do you most look forward to now that you have finished the game? *GH: Earlier on, I was really looking forward to players’ reactions. Games are made to be fun, and I would have felt distraught if my game didn’t achieve what it was set out to do. Yet it was not just about the gameplay; it was about the narrative. I hoped that what I found funny, the player would too; what was heartfelt to me, was heartfelt to the player as well. Like sharing a laugh, or just a good experience together. I hoped they would enjoy the feeling that went into it, despite the struggle of making it against circumstance and limitations. Now, I look forward to resting and sleeping once this over. I want to explore my other interests, improve, and explore new media. I want to relax, and refocus again like I was before the heat of development.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *GH: Bugs! Some are easy to fix, but others are harder due to the limitations of the engine (e.g an error in one ending is caused by an overflow error).

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *GH: Show your game as early as possible, to as many people as possible. As soon as you have something playable, it’s ready for feedback. You’ll see if that game mechanic you spent hours refining works, or if it doesn’t work and why. You’ll understand what players enjoy and what they want more of, but also what they don’t like or don’t enjoy. And you will definitely encounter bugs. You’ll be able to pinpoint and fix minor problems early on that can easily become a larger issue later. You’ll be able to fine-tune your game so its best bits shine, and the difficulty is just right.

Question from last month's featured dev @dead-dreams-dev: Is there anything you’ve added to your game for no other reason than because you’re hoping fans will get a kick out of it? Fanservice, fourth wall breakage, references to other games, jokes, abilities that are just ridiculously overpowered and badass, etc? *GH: It’s hard to say; game design is trying to find the intersection between what’s good for the player, what the developer enjoys, and what’s feasible to implement. Every decision made should be conscious of that … I think a lot of the game’s early light-hearted jokes was not only made because I enjoyed it, but I hoped the player would “get a kick out of it” too. But more so, I think it’s because I would struggle to write a story which is serious and bleak from beginning to end. The game is a little self-indulgent in the narrative that way.

We mods would like to thank ghosthunter & team for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Grimm's Hollow if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[segadores-y-soldados]

Reaper and Soldier: 76 Resources

I will write this once: there IS a “Read more” link.

This post is meant to be a collection of “in-universe” canon, “in-game” official, “out-of-game” official, and non-official discussion sources about Reaper (Gabriel Reyes), Soldier: 76 (Jack Morrison), and their relationship.  It is not specifically an analysis, discussion, or write-up, but at times it will include those.

This is going to include shipping topics or discussions, specifically the ones focused on a romantic relationship between Reaper and Soldier: 76.  

It will occasionally bring up additional characters - such as Ana Amari, Reinhardt Wilhelm, and Moira O’Deorain (to name a few) - in order to discuss how their relationships contrast with the one between Reaper and Soldier: 76.

The resources are organized as follows:

Canon story resources: resources that tell parts of the story events.

In-game details: official in-game details such as map details and interactions, and what they reference

Official statements made by Blizzard developers, specifically Michael Chu, Jeff Kaplan, and Geoff Goodman

Unofficial discussion posts on Reaper, Soldier: 76, Moira, Doomfist, and other characters (e.g. my essays, posts about map details, posts about interactions, etc).

Here we go:

Canonical Resources (“in-universe” story events):

In order of in-story timeline events:

SEP and the Omnic Crisis: Thirty years “in the future” (with 2016 being the year the game launched, rough projections are about 2046) and thirty years before the events of “Recall” (2076), the robot models built by the defunct and bankrupt Omnica Corporation launch a global attack on humanity.  The war rapidly escalates, with “human” problems - politics, mismanagement, and egos, for example - complicating humanity’s ability to counterattack.  The United States government begins a secret military program called “The Soldier Enhancement Program” which injects nanobiological genetic modifications into soldiers, “enhancing” their abilities.  In this program, Gabriel Reyes - given the id number of “Soldier: 24″ - meets Jack Morrison, a relatively new “recruit” with the id number of “Soldier: 76.”

At an unspecified point, both Gabriel and Jack agree to leave the U.S. military and Soldier Enhancement Program for a new, secret United Nations task force called “Overwatch.”  Overwatch was charged with developing a new, unconventional strategy to end the war, and recruited a few specialized paramilitary soldiers and engineers: an Egyptian sniper with a cybernetic eye, a German “Crusader” with a rocket powered armor set, and the Swedish engineer who designed the Omnics.

Under the command of Gabriel Reyes, the group of five (known) soldiers set out to save humanity...and change history.

---

The Golden Age of Overwatch: The above image occurs 10 years after the start of the Omnic Crisis, and 20 years before the events of “Recall.”  Michael Chu has said the following:

“You’ve got your prime, original generation characters: Gabriel, Ana, Jack, Reinhardt, and Torbjörn.  You have an 11-to-12 year old Pharah, you have McCree who’s just been recruited into Blackwatch, you have university-student Mercy who’s visiting the Overwatch base.”

Ages in the photo:

Gabriel: 38 years old (50 at “Retribution,” 58 at “Recall”) Jack: age unknown, approximately 28-35 years old Ana: 40 years old Reinhardt: 41 years old Torbjörn: 37 years old Fareeha: 11-12 years old McCree: 16-17 years old Angela: 16-17 years old

After the end of the Omnic Crisis, Overwatch transforms from a task force of approximately 5 people to a global peacekeeping organization.  Jack is promoted to Strike-Commander, and Gabriel becomes the commander of Overwatch’s covert ops division, Blackwatch.  The two men work together publically and privately to lead the two major halves of the organization, and while their personal lives are not fully detailed, Jeff Kaplan has stated that “they loved each other”.  He has also stated that “Gabriel Reyes was Jack Morrison’s partner.”  Both sources are linked below.

Despite all the issues the organization faces, the two men remain constant and lifelong companions, even though the next several events.

(A lot more under the cut.  I’m not kidding.  This is pretty much everything I have on Reaper and Soldier: 76 - canon, “official”, and unofficial.  It is not a lore analysis or discussion essay: it is, by and large, simply an archive of all the stuff I have.  It’s a summary of a summary, a reference of references.)

(You have been warned.)

---

Moira’s recruitment: Approximately 10 to 8 years before the events of “Recall.”  Roughly twenty to twenty-two years have passed since the events of the Omnic Crisis.  Something is beginning to occur in Gabriel, possibly as a side effect of the SEP “enhancements” he received during the war.  He recruits Moira O’Deorain, a geneticist described as “equal parts brilliant and controversial”.  Gabriel is interested in seeking her help for his condition, and begins participating in Moira’s experiments...

Though who knows if she is genuinely trying to help him find a cure, or if she has her own ambitions for Gabriel’s “true potential”...

Moira’s Origin video: Youtube link

Michael Chu’s statements on Gabriel’s condition:

Twitter conversation with a fan on Reaper’s condition: twitter link

> User: But does that mean Reyes has been Reaper before Overwatch fell? > Michael: I’ll let you draw your own conclusions but the wording on Reaper’s bio is intentional.

Twitter conversation with a fan on if Reaper ages: twitter link

> Michael: One more PSA for the day: Tracer does age. The characters some people assume are trapped in time (Tracer, Mercy, Widowmaker, Mei) all age. > User: You missed an important one there - What about Reaper? Can he even still be considered alive in his state? > Michael:  That's a good question. ;)

Moira Blizzcon 2017 Panel: transcript

> Quote:  “She was recruited by Gabriel Reyes to be a member of Blackwatch.  And uh, during that time she had relationships with the Blackwatch crew - McCree, Genji - they all have their own sort of likes and dislikes for each other.  Reyes wanted someone could help advise him on, uh, some matters of genetics that he was, uh, interested in, shall we say.” - Michael Chu

Though this will be discussed in the “in-game” section in more detail, the following can be found on Oasis, in the University level:

In Moira’s lab:

A folder labeled: “Soldier ID: 24 | Classified”

“Genetic Conditioning and Regenerative Properties of Applied Nanobiotics.” by Dr. Angela Zieglder, MD, Ph. D.

And in the Chemistry lab (NOT Moira’s):

“Repairing Degenerative Genetic Structures.”  Labeled with a “Draft” note, and the logo for Moira’s Genetics lab.

---

Retribution: The events of “Retribution” occur 8 years before Winston initiates “Recall.”  After an Overwatch facility is attacked in Oslo, Norway, Blackwatch agent Gérard Lacroix connects the attack to Antonio, a major Talon leader based in Venice.  He briefs Blackwatch Commander Gabriel Reyes and Blackwatch agent Jesse McCree on the situation at a new facility in Rome, Italy.  However, the facility is attacked, leaving Gérard in a critical condition (though he is expected to make a full recovery).  Gabriel turns to Overwatch Strike-Commander and his lifelong partner Jack Morrison to discuss Overwatch’s options in dealing with Talon and Antonio.

Attack on the Oslo Overwatch base: Blizzard official archives link

“Retribution” comic: Blizzard post; PDF link

Gabriel’s debriefing: “Retribution” game mode trailer; PlayOverwatch official audio

All Retribution interactions: Hammeh/Failcraft link; Overwatch Interactions link

McCree’s ending narration: Youtube link

---

Uprising: The events of “Uprising” take place approximately 1 year after “Retribution” and 7 years before Winston initiates “Recall.”  An Omnic leader named Tekhartha Mondatta arrives in King’s Row, London for a groundbreaking ceremony on a new Omnic housing project.  However, the hostile Omnic group named “Null Sector” attacks, taking him, the London mayor, and many others as hostages.  Null Sector takes over the city, and even though Overwatch offers to help, the United Kingdom denies the organization access to the country.  With the situation growing increasingly critical, pressure is placed on Jack to make a decision.  However, Gabriel has a few plans of his own, and sends McCree into King’s Row to investigate - I mean, for a “vacation.”

“Uprising” comic: Blizzard official; PDF link

Uprising teaser: Youtube link

Uprising Interactions: Hammeh/Failcraft link - while these are primarily between the four playable characters (Tracer, Reinhardt, Mercy, and Torbjörn), I’ve included the link just in case.

Uprising - Reyes and the team: Youtube link

---

Legacy: The events of “Legacy” occur sometime after “Uprising” but before the “fall” of Overwatch, approximately 6-7 years before Winston initiates “Recall.”  One of the Overwatch Strike Teams, led by Jack and Ana, conduct a mission to rescue some scientists who were taken hostage by Talon forces.  During the mission, a “new sniper” shows up and begins taking down Overwatch forces.  Ana starts engaging in a shoot-off with the sniper, and sends in her remote drones to blow up the sniper’s position.  During the explosion, Jack manages to get the rest of the team and the scientists to the dropship.  However, Ana refuses to regroup, and when Jack orders her to return, she defies his instructions and turns off her communication device.  Ana manages to get a shot off on the sniper, but when the sniper’s helmet is damaged, she is shocked to see that the sniper is Amélie Lacroix, who had been presumed dead.  Ana hesitates, allowing Widowmaker to get a critical shot on Ana’s rifle and her cybernetic eye.

“Legacy” comic: Blizzard official; PDF link 

Ana Origin video: Youtube link

This comic is included because it shows a major plot point - Ana’s “death” - which becomes something of an “issue” between Gabriel and Jack.  The comic also shows Jack and Ana’s relationship, in which Ana defies Jack’s orders to pursue a sniper battle with Widowmaker.

The video is included because it is later referenced by Michael Chu in his 2017 GDC talk.  Also important in the video is a group shot of the “early” Overwatch team, and includes an image of Reinhardt’s hand on Ana’s shoulders.

---

The fall: The “fall” of Overwatch takes place approximately 6 years before Winston initiates “Recall.”  Almost no in-universe sources exist that fully detail the events of the explosion of the Swiss Base.

Soldier: 76 Origin video: Youtube link

“Fading Glory: On the Trail of Jack Morrison”: Blizzard official

The article link is italicized because personally, I would not cite this as an accurate, in-universe source any more.  Close to 100% of the article’s details, quotes, and “news” have been retconned (e.g. Jack’s enlistment has changed completely), rewritten (e.g. Mercy’s age and the source of her quote), or proven unreliable (e.g. the “promotion” caused some sort of schism between Jack and Gabriel, which Retribution proves isn’t true).  In the real world Overwatch development timeline, the article is nearly three years old at the time of this post.  However, for the sake of completeness, I have included it here.

While the Soldier: 76 Origin video is just as old as the article, the details in it are “vague enough” that they remain semi-reliable.  Furthermore, the map in “Uprising” remains comparable to the map in the video.

---

Recall: Approximately six years after the explosion of the Swiss Base and the official disbandment of Overwatch by the Petras Act, Winston lives with the AI program Athena in the remains of Watchpoint: Gibraltar.  He is testing a new type of spherical shield, but his prototype fails.  Frustrated, Winston starts watching the news, but hears about the rising tolls of the Second Omnic Crisis in Russia.  He starts the process of initiating the recall of Overwatch agents, but is chided by Athena not to put himself or the others in danger.  However, Winston’s lab is suddenly attacked by a Talon squad, led by the mercenary “Reaper.”

Recall: Youtube link

“Recall” is included in this collection as the first time “Reaper” officially appears in the in-universe timeline.  While he likely worked on unknown events before this, this is our current “starting point” for him.

---

Hero: Shortly after “Recall” is initiated, Alejandra is sent by her mother to get more flour for their bakery.  Alejandra is annoyed with her mother because she keeps treating her “like a baby,” but Alejandra does not realize that her mother is worried her daughter will be forced to make a choice between standing up for what’s right, and doing what’s easy.  On the way to the store, Alejandra runs into members of Los Muertos, an arms-dealing gang that terrorize the streets of Dorado.  They attempt to pressure her into bullying an Omnic, but when Alejandra backs down, they take her coin purse and drive off with it.  Angry, Alejandra chases their truck down, but stumbles across a different sort of terrifying confrontation as the vigilante “Soldier: 76″ attacks the Los Muertos members...

Hero: Youtube link

Prior to “Hero”:

Soldier: 76 breaks into Watchpoint: Grand Mesa:  “Experimental Weapon Stolen from Watchpoint: Grand Mesa”; PlayOverwatch official teaser

Following “Hero”: “LumériCo Vision for Mexico Unveiled, but Threats to Safety Remain a Concern”

Like “Recall”, this is the “first official” appearance of “Soldier: 76″ in the in-universe story events.  Articles detail how he stole the new model of the Heavy Pulse Rifle from the now-Helix-run Watchpoint: Grand Mesa, and then eventually made his way into Mexico.  It is important to note that Soldier: 76 is almost an exact “mirror” to Retribution-era Gabriel, including everything from his more intense, renegade personality down to the way he dresses.  

Though it will be covered more in-depth in the “in-game” official section, Soldier: 76 is the only character besides Sombra to be interested in LumériCo’s activities.

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Old Soldiers: Soldier: 76 has made his way to Giza, Egypt: he is looking for the bounty hunter known as “The Shrike.”  He finds out that Hakim - a Talon associate - is particularly frustrated by the Shrike’s actions and is looking to bring the bounty hunter down.  Soldier: 76 heads to Hakim’s compound, where he hears an exchange between Hakim and Reaper on the comms.  Soldier: 76 recognizes Reaper by voice alone, and (after defeating the guards) enters Hakim’s compound on his own.  Reaper shadow steps in behind him and shoots him in the back.  However, “the Shrike” comes to Soldier: 76′s rescue, shooting him with a healing dart, revitalizing him.  The Shrike removes their facemask to reveal Ana Amari, who is still alive.  Soldier: 76 and Reaper engage in a fistfight (where Ana recognizes who Reaper is even with his “costume”), and Ana takes several shots to hinder Reaper.  Reaper rushes up to her, discovers that Ana is alive, and engages in another fistfight with her.  As the two are falling, Ana unmasks Reaper is is horrified by what she sees:

Reaper then flees, leaving Soldier: 76 to reveal himself as Jack.  Jack asks Ana to join him in his “war.”  Ana accepts because even though she’s not interested in fighting for “his war”, she believes Jack needs someone to watch his back.

“Old Soldiers” comic: Blizzard official; PDF link

This comic was one of the first major “plot twists” released by Blizzard after Overwatch launched.  It revealed that Ana Amari was still alive, that Reaper had been “left to suffer” by Overwatch - and by Jack.

However, several major things stand out:

1. Ana Amari had not been left to die, meaning that part of Reaper’s explanation to her was either outright misguided or a lie.

2. Since the comic’s release, we now know that a combination of other factors “created” Gabriel’s current condition: the SEP experiments, Moira’s experiments, and the Swiss Base explosion.

3. At no point in the comic does Jack ever blame Gabriel for the explosion of the Swiss Base or the fall of Overwatch.

4. Since the comic’s release, we have seen additional comics that show that Gabriel and Jack had a significantly closer relationship than had previously been implied.  This includes Jack being semi-aware of or granting his personal approval to unsanctioned Blackwatch missions.

5. We now know that Gabriel’s driving motivation (at the time of “Retribution”) was actually protecting Jack and keeping him and other Overwatch members safe.

Followed by:

While we still know very little about the actual fall of Overwatch and the Swiss Base explosion, more recent story revelations have shown that a lot of the “plot points” of “Old Soldiers” are either invalidated, misguided (on Reaper’s part), or possibly intentionally misleading.

The last point is especially important for the next two events:

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Infiltration: “Infiltration” occurs several “months” after “Hero” and sometime after the Sombra ARG concludes on Día de Muertos, 2076.  During the course of the half-in-universe, half-in-game Augmented Reality Game to “unlock” Sombra, it is revealed that LumériCo has direct and probably corrupt ties to the Vishkar Corporation and Volskaya Industries.  A small Talon squad composed of Reaper, Widowmaker, and Sombra go to assassinate Katya Volskaya, the CEO, on orders of the Talon leader, Vialli.  The mission is set up so that Widowmaker can snipe her from across her facilitity; however, before Widowmaker can take the shot, the alarm goes off.  Reaper “makes an attempt” to slip in and kill Katya, but is stopped from his “long-range” shotgun shot by the new Volskaya mech.  He instructs Sombra to recover the rest of the mission.  However, Sombra has her own plans...

Infiltration: Youtube link

Prior to “Infiltration”: the LumériCo website is updated for the Sombra ARG, showing an email from Sanjay Korpal of Vishkar.

“Infiltration” is the second official mission we have seen Reaper in - the first is “Recall”, and the second is the “Cinematic Trailer”, where Reaper and Widowmaker attempt to steal Doomfist’s Gauntlet from a museum, but are stopped by Winston and Tracer.

“Infiltration” is important because Sombra is finally introducted directly in the story.  “Infiltration” is also important because it is the first time we know 100% that Reaper deliberately undermined and “threw” a mission (based on his statements in “Masquerade”).  

This leads to the following questions: has Reaper “thrown” other missions in the past (the database collection from “Recall,” the museum heist from the “Cinematic Trailer,” his “trap” in “Old Soldiers”, etc)?

And if he has thrown other missions, why did he do it?

Reaper and Sombra received the following interactions upon her release:

Sombra: What are we doing today, Gabe?  You don't mind if I call you 'Gabe', do you?

Reaper: Stick to the mission.

Reaper: Try to stick to the plan, Sombra.

Sombra: Look, someone has to be ready when all your ‘careful planning’ doesn't pan out.

According to Michael Chu, these interactions can be confirmed as effectively canon.

(Source)

There are a few key takeaways here:

1. Widowmaker does not know who Reaper is.

2. The interactions between Reaper, Soldier: 76, and Ana can be treated as “canon or potentially canon.”  Therefore, they can be used as part of the discussion on what Soldier: 76 and Ana Amari know about Reaper.

3. Soldier: 76 and Ana Amari would and do recognize Reaper on sight and sound alone (confirming that those details in “Old Soldiers” were intentional).

4. McCree and Reinhardt canonically do not know what has happened to Gabriel, but would also recognize him as Reaper.  This implies that Gabriel’s “condition” existed in some form before the fall of Overwatch, and that some members of Overwatch and Blackwatch were aware of his powers.

Returning to Sombra, we can see that Sombra knows Jack’s personal and rather intimate nickname for Gabriel (“Gabe”), which Ana knows of but apparently does not use herself:

Reaper: Guess you're going back on my list, Ana.

Ana: What happened to you, Gabriel?

Reaper appears to “tolerate” Sombra using Jack’s nickname for him, and taken with their other interaction, implies an unusual level of trust between Reaper and Sombra.  Elsewhere, Michael Chu has said the following:

“[Sombra] gets on [Reaper’s] nerves a little bit, but I think that ultimately, Reaper knows that Sombra is effective.  And so he respects that, because he is a good eye for talent. …Look at that Blackwatch team - it’s amazing!”

(Source: Michael Chu, Anime Expo 2017)

“Infiltration” shows us that Sombra is up to something, with the “canon” interactions between her and Reaper implying that Reaper might be “in” on her plan.

This is further implied by:

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Masquerade: After the events of “Reflection,” occurring shortingly before and during Venetian Carnevale in late February 2077, Akande Ogundimu - also known as “The Successor” Doomfist - breaks out of prison.  He is retrieved by Reaper in a dropship, who “debriefs” him on the current situation.  Akande then heads to Monaco, to secure the alliance (and wealth) of the Omnic Talon leader, Maximilien, at Maximilien’s casino.  While there, forces from the rival Talon leader, Vialli (Antonio’s successor), attempt to attack Akande and Widowmaker, but they are defeated.  After that, Akande, Widowmaker, Sombra, and Reaper dress up for the masquerade of Carnevale in Rialto, Venice.  While Widowmaker, Sombra, and Reaper destroy Vialli’s remaining forces, Vialli confronts Akande.  The two discuss the different “visions” for Talon, with Vialli saying that profit and power are good enough for the organization, while Akande argues that they must see themselves as something greater.  Akande then throws Vialli off the bridge or cliff (literally).  Reaper sees this action but does not recognize Vialli by appearance.  Akande and Reaper then head into the Talon headquarters to begin their meeting with some of the other Talon leaders.  Sanjay Korpal is shown in the background, and Moira is partially revealed for the first time.

“Masquerade” comic: Blizzard official; PDF link

“The Masque of the Red Death”: free text; PDF link

Unpacking the full impact and implications of this comic in a relatively short summary is a challenge in its own right.  

Perhaps the most important aspect of the comic is that it directly alludes to the Edgar Allan Poe short story “The Masque of the Red Death”: first, the setting of both stories take place during a masquerade.  The second is that the two major “characters” - in this case, Akande and Reaper - are dressed as a prince and the Red Death respectively.

The third is that - at the end of the Poe story - the Red Death kills everyone in the building.

In the original short story, the “Red Death” is both a plague and a personification of the same disease who “arrives” unannouced “like a thief in the night” at Prince Prospero’s masquerade party.  When the prince and his guests confront the ghastly visitor and “unmask” it, they discover that there is nothing beneath the costume - only Death itself, “untenanted by any tangible form.”

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

The original story is relatively short and rather precise in its pacing and development.  However, beneath the “layers” of the masquerade is the implication that hubris and arrogance on part of the Prince and his guests “invited” the Red Death into their castle - as if they could “hide” from Death itself by just locking themselves up.

The “revolutionary” tone of Poe’s story is that no one - not even the wealthy, or the brave, or the powerful - can “hide” from Death.

That Death is retributive in its deliverance.

Plot-wise, the point of the Blizzard “Masquerade” comic is two-fold: 1) it introduces Akande and shows how powerful he is...and how strong-willed he is, and 2) it heavily implies that Reaper - who is dressed as the Red Death - is playing a “masquerade” against Talon, and that when he is eventually “unmasked” by the Talon leaders, he will kill them.

Understanding and interpreting “Masquerade” through the lens of “The Masque of the Red Death” is, quite bluntly, one of the only major ways to make sense of Gabriel’s actions from Retribution to Masquerade.  It provides solid analysis and textual evidence for the idea that he is infiltrating Talon to enact retribution on the Talon leaders and destroy them, just as they destroyed Overwatch.

The use of literary and other cultural references for Gabriel/Reaper’s behavior is important, as it is clearly part of both his in-universe characterization, and his in-game/non-canon characterization.

For example, “Reaper” also has not one, not two, but three skins that refer to literary references:

Respectively, they are: “Nevermore”, “Pumpkin”, and “Dracula” and they refer to the following pieces:

The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, by William Irving

“Dracula”, by Bram Stoker

While Nevermore and Dracula are not “canon” to the plot of Overwatch, “Pumpkin” actually is:

Interestingly, the Headless Horseman character in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is also attempting to trick other characters, specifically Ichabod Crane.

The next morning the old horse was found without his saddle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly cropping the grass at his master’s gate. Ichabod did not make his appearance at breakfast; dinner-hour came, but no Ichabod. The boys assembled at the schoolhouse, and strolled idly about the banks of the brook; but no schoolmaster. Hans Van Ripper now began to feel some uneasiness about the fate of poor Ichabod, and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, and after diligent investigation they came upon his traces. In one part of the road leading to the church was found the saddle trampled in the dirt; the tracks of horses’ hoofs deeply dented in the road, and evidently at furious speed, were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin.

[...] Brom Bones, too, who, shortly after his rival’s disappearance conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar, was observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laugh at the mention of the pumpkin; which led some to suspect that he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell.

And of course, we have the very telling interactions from Retribution:

Moira: Pity we’ll miss the masquerade - I have the perfect costume. Reyes: Didn’t think that would be your scene. Moira: There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me…

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Moira: Pity we’ll miss the masquerade - I have the perfect costume. Reyes: Didn’t think that would be your scene. Moira: You’re not the only one who likes to dress up.

---

Gabriel: It’s not exactly Carnevale McCree: You serious? Gabriel: I was looking forward to the masquerade! McCree: Fair enough.

Which now brings me to:

In-game official resources:

As a reminder, here is what Michael Chu has had to say about the interactions:

(Source)

(Source 2)

Because of these, the interactions between Reaper and Soldier: 76 can be deemed as “canon or potentially canon”:

Soldier: 76: Aren't you supposed to be dead?

Reaper: Didn't take.

Soldier: 76: One of these days someone is gonna to put an end to you.

Reaper: I invite them to try.

Soldier: 76: Well, you sure take to this “bad guy” thing easily, don't ya?

Reaper: And you sure know how to play “boy scout”.

Important here is that Soldier: 76 never accuses Reaper of being the cause of the fall of Overwatch or the cause of the Swiss Base explosion.  This is in direct contrast with Soldier: 76′s new interaction with Moira:

Soldier: 76: You were a disgrace to Overwatch. If I had known what Reyes had been planning, I would never have allowed it.

Moira: It seems to me that it was convenient for you not to look too closely into Gabriel’s business.

(Audio clip)

While Soldier: 76′s interaction with Moira is not specifically canon, we can conclude that this is what he would say if he met her in the present day of Overwatch.  Unlike his interactions with Reaper, he specifically calls Moira a “disgrace to Overwatch,” and implies that if he could have stopped her and/or Gabriel’s “plan”, he would have.

However, note that he also never directly describes “what Reyes had been planning”.  This leaves the interaction very open to interpretation, and leaves just enough room to create a “plot twist” where Jack actually knows or and/or approves of Gabriel’s infiltration of Talon, while still allowing him enough room to be angry with Moira for her role in bringing Overwatch down.

Related to this, the interactions between Reaper and Ana (which also fall in the “canon or potentially canon” category) have a decidedly different tone than his interactions with Soldier: 76:

Reaper: Guess you're going back on my list, Ana.

Ana: What happened to you, Gabriel?

Reaper: I shouldn't be surprised you took his side.

Ana: You never gave me much choice.

Reaper: Just like old times.

Ana: Right. Except for the part where you became a homicidal maniac.

It appears that Ana might not be “aware” of whatever Gabriel is planning in Talon.

This also calls into question the “explanation” Gabriel gave Ana in “Old Soldiers.”  Since we know that like, all of it is wrong, we need to ask why it is wrong: is it that Gabriel actually believes Jack and Overwatch left him behind “to suffer”, or is it that Gabriel is attempting to put on a “masquerade”, both for Ana and Hakim (who may be listening to him or watching him)?

It’s interesting that Reaper tells Hakim that:

Reaper: Once you set a trap...you never know what will fall into it.

Though we are told Reaper and Hakim “set the trap” to catch The Shrike, the juxtaposition of Soldier: 76, the cameras, the comms, and the wording can imply that Reaper and Soldier: 76 are the ones setting “the real trap”, to lure “the Shrike” out of hiding while still tricking both Ana and Hakim into their “trap”.

This goes along with the following in-game details:

Sombra’s apartment

I personally find it interesting that no one ever asks how Jack knew to search for the Shrike.

In-game details on maps are canonical in the sense that they provide us environmental story-telling details: while they do not “speak” parts of the story, they give us important clues about characters, their connections, and the overall plot.

Sombra’s apartment is a treasure trove of all these details, pointing to how important she is in the overall story.

Sombra knows: 1) who Soldier: 76, the Shrike, and Jesse McCree are, 2) how they interact with each other, and 3) possibly how to contact them.

She also, very obviously, knows Gabriel’s “biggest emotional secret”:

Sombra: What’s the plan today, Gabe?  You don’t mind if I call you ‘Gabe,’ do you? Reaper: Stick to the mission.

No other characters have been shown to use this nickname for Gabriel.

Just Jack and, as a “joke”, Sombra.

Remember that names are important to Jack - arguably, more important to him than to Gabriel given Jack’s role as Strike-Commander.  Jack’s usage of “Gabe”, “Gabriel”, “Commander Reyes”, and “Reyes” is almost entirely dictated by the people he is talking to or his immediate situation, not by his emotional state of being: “Gabe” is used twice, in personal and intimate moments, “Gabriel” is used during Gabriel’s debriefing (when McCree and Gérard are present), “Commander Reyes” is used when he talks to Lena Oxton for the first time, and “Reyes” is used in other “public” situations (e.g. Route 66, the Moira interaction).  This appears to be part of Jack’s “soldier identity”: he has been the Strike-Commander and a soldier for so long that “code-switching” his names for Gabriel is automatic for him.

Gabriel, on the other hand, is more casual: he permits pretty much every character to call him “Gabriel” or “Reyes”, with Sombra and McCree (and interestingly, Jack as well) also calling him “boss.”  At all points in his life, Gabriel is much less interested in maintaining military decorum than Jack is.

However, there’s obviously one particular nickname which only 1-2 people are “allowed” to use.

Sombra using “Gabe” carries significantly more emotional weight than initial appearances imply.  Ana, Moira, McCree, and Pharah calling Gabriel “Gabriel” does not carry the same connotation - nor emotional power - as Sombra calling him “Gabe,” even as a joke.

On the flipside of this, Jack literally wearing the number “76″ on his back is a huge “reverse tell”: 

Because Gabriel/Reaper is arguably the only person to fully understand what the name of “Soldier: 76″ represents:

Jack using a “title” that “Reaper” can easily identify is suspicious for many reasons: why does Jack want to draw attention to that?  Why is he falling back on an identity that only Gabriel really truly understands?  Is it a warning to “Reaper”, or is it an olive branch?

(And speaking of names, isn’t it interesting that Sombra’s real name is “Olivia”?)

Necropolis

Necropolis is the current hideout of Soldier: 76 and Ana - and one very blatant and obvious fact should stick out:

Not only do they sleep in separate beds, they literally sleep in separate “rooms”.

In fact, as part of the “canon or potentially canon” interactions between Soldier: 76 and Ana, there’s a semi-broken or unused one that can maybe be triggered on Necropolis:

Ana: Jack, we’re adults!  You don’t have to sleep outside! Soldier: 76: I’m...fine where I am.

(Source)

Living in a separate building in the Necropolis is Jack’s choice.

The second obvious thing that sticks out:

The “Reaper sightings” map.

The locations are:

Los Angeles, California - Gabriel’s home city (which he visits in “Reflections”)

Watchpoint: Gibraltar - “Recall”

Numbani, Nigeria - “Masquerade”

St. Petersburg, Russia - “Infiltration”

Oasis, Iraq - no specific known event yet

The Oasis one is very important because so far, only “two people” are confirmed to know Reaper has been there.  One is, obviously, Moira, who lives and works there as the Minister of Genetics -

And who appears to be working on a “cure” for Reaper’s condition.

The second is:

Sombra: So what are we doing here, boss?

Reaper: I need to pay a visit to a friend.

Sombra.

It is heavily implied that Sombra is “leaking” Reaper’s locations to Soldier: 76 and Ana.

Now, it is not known if she is doing this with or without his permission.  At the moment, I am personally leaning towards the former: Sombra and Reaper are shown to have a tentative trust with each other, and Sombra not only knows who he is, but what is Gabriel’s driving goal:

There’s also this image which is all over Necropolis:

(source)

The imagery and iconography of it is basically summarized as Ana, Jack, and Gabriel, in that order.  Both men wear crowns, though the crown on the “pharaoh” is not colored, and the crown on the last man is actually the “double-feathers” crown, symbolizing Amun and Amun-Ra, “king of the gods.”

While the implication of the image isn’t exactly clear, all the details on Necropolis, Sombra’s apartment in Castillo, and in-game interactions point to an ambiguous relationship between Reaper and Soldier: 76.  Not only are there clearer demonstrations of genuinely bitter or angry interactions (for Reaper, see Ana and McCree, and for Soldier, see Moira), but everything about them - including their implied shared ties to Sombra as their information “go-between” - is extremely open-ended for two men who supposedly “hate” each other.

There is only one instance of one of them - Reaper - “blaming” the other for his condition, but not only are Reaper’s statements genuinely incorrect or wrong, the circumstances under which he says them (when Hakim is watching and listening) and the vague implication that Soldier: 76 helped him “set the trap” for Ana makes the entire series of statements skeptical and effectively unreliable in a literal sense:

I won’t discount the idea that Reaper is genuinely, truly angry and upset here, but I’m reaching the point where too many details add up and make it difficult to argue.  Reaper is “putting on a masquerade” in a least two to three other plot events (Retribution, Infiltration, and Masquerade), so this “explanation” seems more and more like it’s part of that persona.

Other than that, no other remarks are made by Reaper, Soldier: 76, Ana, Sombra, or any other character that either Reaper or Soldier: 76 are responsible for the “fall” of Overwatch.  The only article which alludes to the idea that Gabriel blew up the Swiss Base is incredibly unreliable as a source, even by in-universe standards.

Instead, an increasing amount of details and evidence points to Jack either being aware of Gabriel’s infiltration plan from the start, or becoming aware of it later.  He may or may not directly approve of the plan, but he does not “reveal” Gabriel’s intentions to other people either.

Oasis

As someone who has watched the majority of these story developments get revealed “in real time”, it’s tricky to find a spot to describe Moira, her role in the story, how she influenced Gabriel and his relationship with Jack, and the contents in Oasis.  The contents in Oasis are canon story details that tie the past to the present, and give an indication of how complicated Gabriel’s position with Moira and Talon has become.

In the present day, after “Recall” and throughout “Old Soldiers”, “Reflections”, and “Masquerade”, Moira is the Minister of Genetics in Oasis, Iraq.  Oasis is a city specifically made for - and designed for - free and unrestricted scientific and technological advancement and experimentation.  Like Necropolis, Oasis includes a handful of “semi-mythological references”, including a reference to the Tower of Babel and everything that implies.

Oasis Travel Tips: Blizzard official

For the University level, the two spawn points are two laboratories.  One is the Genetics lab, which is run by Moira.

In this lab, you can find the following items:

Gabriel’s “Soldier 24″ folder, which implies that his “condition” was partially or mostly caused by the Soldier Enhancement Program:

And Mercy’s research, which implies that Moira is...rather liberally taking a few “inspirations” from Angela’s work:

(Or rather, it implies that Moira’s Healing Biotic Grasp uses Mercy’s technology.)

However, the opposite spawn room is the Chemistry lab.

And it is here where you will find Moira’s research on Gabriel’s condition and how to cure it.

This leads to a very interesting question:

Is Moira “sharing” her research?

Or did the Minister of Chemistry - currently unknown - take it, just like how Moira has “taken” Mercy’s research?

Moira’s paper on curing Gabriel’s condition, and the fact that it is currently in jeopardy, indicates a few things:

1. This plus Michael’s statements about Gabriel’s condition and his “interests” in genetics indicates that Gabriel recruited Moira to help cure his pre-fall “Reaper” condition.

2. It is highly probable that Gabriel has claimed that the cure for his condition is the main reason he is working for Moira and Talon, even though his actual motivations for joining Talon are probably significantly different (basically, that he wants to enact retribution upon them).

3. It makes his statements to Ana in “Old Soldiers” very suspicious, as we know SEP, Moira, and the Swiss Base explosion are the biggest factors in his current “Reaper condition.”

4. There is the potential for Gabriel and Jack to have genuinely disagreed on “curing” Gabriel’s condition, as well as his plan for infiltrating Talon.  In an archetypal “undercover” trope fashion, they may have disagreed out of love for each other rather than anger over differences in methods.

5. There is also the potential for Gabriel and Jack to currently (as in, post-Recall) be working together to “cover” each other.  With Sombra acting as their go-between, Gabriel might be delaying his retribution plan until he knows Moira can cure him, or he gets ahold of the cure or paper himself.

Based on the Necropolis map, Reaper’s “visit” to Oasis is currently canon, and both Soldier: 76 and Ana know about it.

“Out-of-game” Official Resources: Statements by Jeff Kaplan and Michael Chu

In chronological order:

1. Michael Chu’s Spring 2017 GDC talk titled “Thinking Globally: Building the Optimistic Future of Overwatch”

Full quote (bold and italics are for emphasis and do not reflect speaking tone):

“And then I’d like to talk about one of my favorite relationships in the Overwatch universe, which is the one between Gabriel Reyes - now Reaper, Jack Morrison - now Soldier: 76, and Ana Amari.  Cause it’s a story about power, friendship, and how a changing world can bring people together and split them apart.  It’s a relationship that defines the story of Overwatch, and how Overwatch grew as an organization, and even now today, what they’re all up to is important to driving forward the current story of the game.  And what I really like about it is that it is a deep, complex relationship that’s not necessarily only driven by romance, and it highlights how different people can see and experience different events.  

“Which brings me…to ‘Perspective.’  One of the things we really like doing with Overwatch is playing with perspective.  We utilize perspective when we analyze or when we tell stories about characters, what they’re thinking, what their goals are.  And we have a lot of unreliable narrators.  We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations.  We want them to use their judgment and their knowledge of a character’s thoughts to come up with their own ideas about the universe.  You know, I’m asked often - with characters like Sombra or Soldier: 76, you know, ‘Are they anti-heroes?  Are they villains?’  And I think, you know, you look at someone like Sombra, and it’s all about looking at, ‘What does she want?  What is she willing to do to get it?’

“And you have to remember that when she’s telling you something, she’s serving her own ends too.  So you know, you have to kinda make the decision for yourself. And I think you can take a character like Soldier: 76 - like obviously, he has this mission that he is on that he believes is good, he seems to be sometimes willing to do things which are… maybe not super heroic, and so it makes him complicated.  We always have a lot of fun, uh - every once and awhile we’ll try and plot all the characters on like the traditional D’n’D alignment scale, and I think, you know, it’s fun exercise, but at the end of the day, I think what’s interesting about characters is that those alignments change depending on what situation you put them in, what’s important to them, and what decisions they have to make.

“[…] The world needs heroes, but it also needs villains.  And we have a number of villainous characters in Overwatch.  And what’s important to us is that their internal motivations are not purely rooted in ‘being evil,’ despite how they might seem on the surface.  You know, as we reveal more about these characters, we want people to be able to empathize and understand their beliefs.  Because sometimes what makes a villain a villain is the extent to which they’re willing to go to reach their goals.  And one thing that we find most important when we’re talking about our villain characters is that there is nothing to say that a villain cannot be as charismatic - or more charismatic - or as likeable as a hero character.  Because like the old saying goes, ‘Every villain is the hero of their own story.’”

---

As described above, there is relatively little evidence to support the idea that Michael’s line about romance was focused solely on Ana and one of the other masculine characters.  Instead, since this talk, more and more details have shown that Ana - though absolutely an important part of the Overwatch leadership and an important friend to both Gabriel and Jack - is not a romantic interest of either character.  Outside of the actual story and the “in-game” canon elements, Ana has other “suitors”, in particular Fareeha’s biological father Sam, and Reinhardt Wilhelm, who makes a number of admiring and flirtatious comments about Ana in Junkenstein’s Revenge.

Furthermore, Michael makes a good deal of effort to compare Sombra with Soldier: 76.  As a reminder, both characters occupy a sort of “elevated status” with Gabriel and have permission (perhaps reluctantly, in Sombra’s case) to call him “Gabe.”

Lastly, Michael ends this part of the conversation by talking about how Overwatch writes and perceives its “villain” characters.  Since that time, we have seen the release of Doomfist and the “Masquerade” comic, Moira and her Origin video, and the “Retribution” event, all of which give us more multifaceted sides to Gabriel, portraying him as far more empathetic and emotionally-vulnerable than previous story elements.

---------

2. Michael Chu and Geoff Goodman on Reaper and Moira’s working relationship, Moira reveal panel, Blizzcon November 2017: transcript

Geoff Goodman: “It [Her Fade ability] has some similarities to Reaper’s wraith form…uh which is…it’s funny how that works out.” Michael Chu: “You know, we obviously - there’s a…there’s a close relationship between Moira and Reyes-slash-Reaper, and I think one of the fun things we were able to do is to sort of hint at some of those things in her, uh, abilities.” Geoff Goodman: “She’s helping Reaper out and is like, ‘You know, I think I could make this better, I have an idea.’” Michael Chu: “Professional relationship.” Geoff Goodman: “Ahaha, yes…good call.” Michael Chu: “You know what I’m talking about.” [Whole panel laughs] 

---

This comment is included to show the level of effort Michael Chu made to immediately deflect questions about a romantic relationship between Gabriel and Moira.  Like, within minutes of Moira being revealed publically, the lead writer of Overwatch made a deliberate and intentional effort to preemptively diffuse discussions on if they were romantic.  While the transcript downplays the little back-and-forth on the panel, both Michael and Geoff’s tone make it apparent that Gabriel and Moira are purely platonic associates, and that their relationship, while “close” in the sense that they share abilities (or rather, that Moira modified Gabriel’s abilities for her own use), is one that is strictly professional.

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3. Jeff Kaplan’s November 8, 2017 lecture: transcript and audio

Text: At one point, Reyes was in charge of Overwatch when it formed, and when ti becaome more of a thing after they defeated the Omnic Crisis, Morrison was actually given the top position of power and Reyes was overlooked because he was too rogue, he was too maverick in his leadership style - he ruffled too many feathers.  And a lot of our fans have assumed, “Oh, that’s why Reyes and Morrison hate each other,” and the story that we’re developing is actually like, “No, these guys loved each other.”  Like, they’re like, best war buddies.  And in a lot of ways, Reyes was relieved that Morrison had to have the more political role, and like, he was like kind of - it’s always easier being the Number 2 guy because you’re not ultimately accountable for all that.

---

“Best war buddies” lol

Regardless of what happens or where the story goes, the fact that the lead game developer for a triple-A game title with over 40 million players stated that two military men genuinely loved each other is honestly very poignant and moving.  As a reminder, “that depth of relationship” spanned almost 25 years before the “fall” of Overwatch, and currently stands at about 30 years when Recall is included.

Again, no matter where the plot goes or why, the fact remains that Gabriel and Jack did, at one point, love each other, and that currently, they very suspiciously “refuse” to actually fight or even really hurt each other.  Reaper had the chance to do serious damage to Soldier: 76 (and then Ana) and basically “threw” his chances - a recurring “issue” for him, it seems.  Not only is he incapable of killing Soldier: 76 or Ana, he does not manage to actually kill or do serious harm to Winston or Tracer either.

---------

4. Jeff Kaplan’s interview podcast with AIAS, May 2018: audio and transcript

Segment:

Ted Price: Who’s the oldest character?  Or what’s the age of the oldest character?

Jeff Kaplan: I think, um…I think it’s Gabriel Reyes, who is Reaper.  But it’s kinda not a fair answer, because technically Reaper is dead?  But I think that’s a little bit questionable.  So Gabriel Reyes was, like, Jack Morrison’s partner - they were Soldier: 76 - and he was in Overwatch, and then he kinda goes bad and there’s a horrific thing that happens and he becomes Reaper.

---

So like I’ve said elsewhere:

Once is an accident.  Twice is a coincidence.  Three times is a pattern.

As part of the “context” of this line, Jeff had specifically been talking about how Overwatch integrates diversity into its story: that it doesn’t want to do a “checklist” of representation, but rather make the characters feel real and emotional and substantial.  That, as part of that effort, they’ve included stories about two Japanese brothers having a falling out, or an Egyptian sniper and her heroic daughter - 

Or the story of a brave, determined fighter pilot-turned-adventurer who loves her girlfriend.

The fact of the matter is:

You can now write “Gabriel and Jack loved each other.  Gabriel was Jack’s partner.” and these lines are 100% accurate to actual statements made by the lead developer of the game himself.  You can write that their relationship was and is “a deep, complex relationship that’s not necessarily only driven by romance” and it is 100% accurate to statements made by the lead writer of the game.

You can write things like “so far, only Jack Morrison was allowed to call Gabriel Reyes ‘Gabe’ (until Sombra decided to tease him about it)” and that’s 100% accurate to everything that’s been represented in the story of Overwatch itself.

You can write that “protecting Jack Morrison was Gabriel Reyes’ guiding and decision-making motivation” and that is 100% accurate to the comic of “Retribution.”

You can write that “Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes represented two halves of a single whole” and that is 100% accurate to all that they are:

And the lead writer of Overwatch himself has said the following:

We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations.  We want them to use their judgment and their knowledge of a character’s thoughts to come up with their own ideas about the universe.

That he wants you to pay attention, look at the details, analyze them, and develop your own interpretation.

In light of the relatively recent revelations about Lúcio’s father, or the newest addition to the playable roster (Brigitte, at the time of this writing), it is true that Overwatch isn’t done telling stories about relationships, interconnectivity, families, friendships, and companionship.  So yes, I realize that there could be additional “plot twists” along the way, and that these could concern Gabriel and Jack.

But as a counterpoint, the recent burst of new interactions (that came with the 2nd Anniversary update) remains...suspiciously “light” in terms of Reaper and Soldier: 76.  

Compare and contrast:

Lúcio and Pharah get new interactions focusing on their parents: Lúcio gets two abotu his father, and Pharah gets one with Ana about her biological father Sam, and one with Sombra about her mother, Ana (who prevented her daughter from being accepted into Overwatch).  Torbjörn, Bastion, and Brigitte get a handful of new interactions talking about Torbjörn “adopting” Bastion, and Zenyatta gets one with Torbjörn where he patiently (and a bit mischievously) observes that Torbjörn “has taken in an Omnic”.  Orisa tells Reinhardt how she is analyzing his combat abilities, and Genji gets a new interaction with Zenyatta about Hanzo.

Moira gets a lot of new interactions: one with Mercy, two with Winston, one with Pharah, one with McCree, one with Mei - 

And one with Reaper...and then one with Soldier: 76.

The interconnectivity of relationships in Overwatch is important.  In fact, it is arguably what makes the characters and world so compelling, even if the story has fluctuated in retaining a strong audience at times.  With the recent interactions update, that interconnectivity increased almost exponentially, and Overwatch did not shy away from interactions about familial relationships.

It even introduced a new one - Lúcio and his father, and returned to one that it had previously only implied in “Reflections” - the relationship between Ana, Fareeha, and Sam.

In contrast, Gabriel got a huge story moment in “Retribution”: his personality, his motivations, his methods, and his focus were all explored with a relatively emotional depth.

And what we saw is that - when asked to consider what will help “keep the world safe”:

Gabriel Reyes did not think of “a family” - unknown and distant.  He did not think of “home” - like Los Angeles or the Swiss Base.  He did not think of his life’s work with Overwatch, nor his “power” in Blackwatch.  He did not think of his “Reaper” condition, nor enacting revenge on Antonio.

He did not even think of Talon, and how he wanted to destroy them, eye for an eye.

When asked to think about keeping “the world” safe:

Gabriel thought of Jack.

And while there are numerous ways to interpret and discuss their current relationship as “Reaper” and “Soldier: 76″, it is clear that Gabriel is still very much on the forefront of Jack’s mind:

Soldier: 76: You were a disgrace to Overwatch. If I had known what Reyes had been planning, I would never have allowed it.

Moira: It seems to me that it was convenient for you not to look too closely into Gabriel’s business.

(Audio clip)

The details in the comics and shorts matter.  The details in the game matter.  The details in the interactions matter.  The details in the developer and writer comments matter.

And that is why I am compiling this.

This is a story with so much potential.  But it is important to realize that even what is present here, now, two years after the game launched, has come a long ways.  Sometimes it feels like it’s not enough.

And sometimes, we get a glimpse into the true “depth” of that relationship.

Which brings me to the final part.

Unofficial discussions, write-ups, posts, and interpretations

Like the official developer and writer comments section, this one will go in real-world chronological order.  I prefer this method so that both the readers and myself can see the analytical and interpretative changes that my personal thoughts and ideas have gone through over the last 18 months.

Again, not all of these are true: many of these ideas have been proven incorrect, many only “half correct”, etc.  The vast majority are still waiting “to be confirmed” or denied.

If you read or reference these, please keep in mind my two main “purposes” in writing them:

1. I write them for myself and my closest friends.  Pretty much all of these posts are written from my own ideas and conversations I have with a handful of other Overwatch fans.  I have always written these down to basically document my ideas, conversations, and theories.  Many are extremely informal in tone, and are written specifically for tumblr’s kinda insane blog format.

I write them because I enjoy the exploration of the characters and world of Overwatch.  I write them because I enjoy analyzing and discussing story details, character development, and changing plot points.  I write them because I enjoy reflexively engaging with the stories and media I consume.

Therefore, the structures of the posts vary wildly, based mainly on my mindset and mood at the time of the post, and the ideas and analysis I was trying to explore then.  The best examples of these are “Quick Reasons Not to Trust Moira in Retribution” and “Long Reasons Not to Trust Moira in Retribution.”  I wrote “Quick” at 2 am, on my phone, less than 24 hours (2 am, April 11) after Retribution had become globally playable.  In contrast, I wrote “Long” two days later (April 13), after I had more time to collect more pieces of the story, build a case, cite my sources, and use better formatting (and also get more sleep, lol).

2. The secondary “objective” of the posts is always subsumed by Point 1: I am glad, happy, grateful, and humbled that people enjoy the posts.  I really am.  But again, it is not about being “right or wrong, correct or incorrect, confirmed or denied.”

If the posts generate discussions, or they get other people to think and engage with Overwatch in a critical, analytical manner, then to me, that is what makes them important.  I do not particularly care if you don’t believe Moira was the double-agent in Retribution - but if it made you stop and think about Moira’s goals, her ambitions, her methods, and her character development, then that is what I’m happy for.

“An Eye for An Eye” (17) is a good, more recent example of the “second objective” of these posts: it’s not about settling on one particular interpretation (though I do that with stuff like “Death Becomes You” and “Long Reasons Not to Trust Moira in Retribution”).  Sometimes, many times, these posts are just about analyzing what some evidence shows and discussing how it can fit into different interpretations and then into different story narratives that Blizzard could use.

---

1. a post about the “Reaper sightings” map in the then-new Necropolis map on the PTR.  Date: May 23, 2017.  Discusses canon locations Reaper had visited between Recall and “Reflections.”  Includes a small discussion Oasis, and why Reaper would go there (well before Moira was revealed).

2. “Talon: Clawing to the Top.”  Date: July 06, 2017.  Written after Doomfist was revealed (July 06, 2017) but before the “Masquerade” comic was released (July 16, 2017).  Is not totally correct (e.g. on the Volskaya part) but more discusses the changing world of Overwatch and why Doomfist is so focused on conflict as a source of growth.  First essay to discuss the implication that Reaper is working with Sombra to bring down Talon.

3. a post about the significance of Reaper wearing the Red Death disguise at a literal masquerade, and how it compares to Edgar Allan Poe’s short story.  Date: July 16, 2017.

4. “Death Becomes You”.  Date: July 16, 2017.  Analyzed the “Masquerade” comic from the lens of “The Masque of the Red Death.”  Discussed how Doomfist and Reaper compare to the principal characters of the story - Prince Prospero and the Red Death.  Argues that the “main character” who is “masquerading” in Talon is Reaper.

5. a post about the imagery of Necropolis, and how it appears to symbolize the relationships between Reaper, Soldier: 76, and Ana.  Date: August 01, 2017.  Taken with Number 1, Necropolis seems to hint that there is “more going on” between the three old soldiers, that it’s possible Soldier: 76 and Ana are either trying to help Reaper or are actively working with him, and that Sombra may act as a point of contact between them all.

6. “Devil in the Details.” Date: August 20, 2017.  An essay analyzing the map of active Overwatch investigations, and how one key location (Switzerland) is highly suspicious.  Also discusses if Gabriel and Jack are currently working together in the Recall area.

7. “Moira: A Fate Fulfilled.”  Date: November 05, 2017.  Compares a timeline of fan ideas (e.g. “Evil Mercy,” “Mercy failed to resurrect Reyes,” and “we need a Talon support character”) with Moira’s design, her backstory, and her abilities.  Discusses how Moira seemsto fill a “void” that was missing in the plot for a long time, as well as her research on Reaper.

8. “Everything You Want to Know About Reaper and Soldier: 76.” Date: November 09, 2017.  Reviews and analyzes the then-available information about Reaper and Soldier: 76, particularly in light of Jeff Kaplan’s lecture.  Discusses speculation on the Venice Mission before we fully knew what it would be.  Importantly, it also discusses how Jack Morrison was probably aware of Blackwatch missions, which was later confirmed by “Retribution”.

9. “Quick Reasons Not to Trust Moira in Retribution.” Date: April 11, 2018.   10. “Long Reasons Not to Trust Moira in Retribution.” Date: April 13, 2018.  Please.  Please read this.  Especially if you have questions at the end of “Quick Reasons.”  For the love of everything, I can guarantee you that if you have a question about Gabriel/Reaper and Moira, I have probably answered it in this essay.  If you ask me “Why would Moira want more funding from Talon if she works for Blackwatch?” I will literally just send you a link to this essay.  

11. things I found interesting about the Blackwatch Venice memos. Date: April 24, 2018.  Basically summarizes “Long Reasons” but in a lot less detail.  Goes over the “declassified” memos about the Venice Mission.

12. An important detail people are missing.  Date: April 24, 2018.  Reviews both Retribution and “Devil in the Details” but with more current information.

13. “A Clash of Kings”. Date: April 28, 2018.  Discusses if Akande knows who Reaper is.  Describes my method for interpreting unreliable narrators and perspectives in Overwatch (e.g. in the shorts and comics).  Also talks about Moira’s role as a sort of mediator between Akande and Reaper, and “whose side” she would take if she was forced to choose.

14. “The Immortal Soldier?”. Date: May 4, 2018.  Hypothesizes on if Jack Morrison has achieved a sort of “pre-fall Reaper state of existence” (e.g. that he can get hurt, feel pain, and accumulate scars, but that he might be unintentionally self-healing/self-sustaining).

15. A reply to “A Clash of Kings” where I talk about the “canon” or “in-game” evidence for Reaper76 and Anahardt.  Date: May 7, 2018.

16. “Retribution and Reapercussions”. Date: May 13, 2018.  An extremely long write-up on the consequences of the Blackwatch Venice mission in the immediate aftermath.  Talks about Gabriel’s debriefing, and how he might have “negotiated” with Moira to buy her silence.  Also explores how the mission may have emotionally wounded both Gabriel and Jack on a very personal level, and while the mission didn’t specifically tear them apart, it certainly cut very deep.

17. “An Eye for An Eye”. Date: May 25, 2018.  A write-up on the Soldier: 76-Moira interaction, and how the wording of Soldier’s lines is just vague enough to imply a few different interpretations.  Explores if Jack: 1) knew or did not know about Gabriel’s infiltration plans for Talon and 2) approved or disapproved of them.  Also talks about how Jack’s personality has become almost a mirror of pre-fall Gabriel’s.

18. A reply to an ask about Jack’s use of different names for Gabriel. Date: May 25, 2018.  Personally, I think that - more than any other character “pair” in the game - Jack’s use of different names for Gabriel (Gabe, Gabriel, Reyes, Commander Reyes, boss, bad guy, etc) are almost 100% contextual/situational, which shows a considerable depth between both of them.  Jack’s use of different names is not necessarily correlated with emotion or “emotional distance”, but with his sense of military protocol and situational contexts (e.g. “private personal discussions” vs “public, formal ones”).

19. Michael Chu’s interview where he confirms that none of the characters have gone in “completely different directions” (aka major retcons) since the game started, but he also confirms that the way they’ve been releasing and telling the stories has had an impact on what they can show and represent about characters, specifically Reaper.  Date: May 30, 2018.

20. “Those Who Rise Up”. Date: June 1, 2018.  Part 2 of the exploration on the consequences of Retribution, this time from Talon’s end.  Discusses Akande and the “Doomfist legacy”, the creation of Widowmaker and her parallels to Reaper, and if Tracer’s Slipstream flight was an accident or sabotage.

21. Three “quick pieces” on newer interpretations on the “Old Soldiers” and “Legacy” comics, using more knowledge from Uprising, Retribution, and other sources: (Post where Soldier’s actions are suspicious), (Post about how Reaper’s explanation to Ana about his condition is incorrect), (Post about how Gabriel was actually probably empathetic with Jack after Ana’s “death”). Date: June 5, 2018.

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All in all, I hope these resources are useful.  Again, even with this actual “collection of resources” post, I’m really basically writing this for myself (because I’m getting tired of search through my own blog for this stuff, lol). but please feel free to use any and all resources for your own stuff.  Save them, like them, reblog them, link them - that is precisely what this post is for.

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Monday, 05 July 2021

Have a good quarter. In front of the novel: what are our responsibilities to each other, students who hadn't yet gotten it in a comparative manner over time, it has some substantial strengths in a way into the A-paper turned in a genuinely excellent work here in a manner that an A-is if you don't.

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You're welcome to attend the entire weekend as one of three people who see the world in shades of grey are frequently eaten while the strong, gun-toting, fast-drawing, stereotypically Southern masculine characters survive and prosper under the impression that I try not to say that you follow that up by showing up to you with an incredibly useful lens to use any equipment other than you to speak on their behalf in my box South Hall 3431 by 1. You will notice, regarding the text. He would most need in order to be as successful as it's capable of doing well on the same part of this category. Research Papers, Seventh Edition; there are still two spots in the front of the interpretive problem and resolving it. It's perfectly OK. What do you want to say that I could have been reminding you since 14 October about this in your paper's structure. If you feel this way. Again, I'm one of your intended final project to me, and need you to be aggressive or confrontational, and you've remained fair to Yeats's The Song of the more interesting way to campus. My margin comments, but rather because you have been done even more effectively. Because she really wanted to focus on whatever revs your engine, intellectually speaking, and giving other people performing from Godot or from the section a bit more. For instance, you should definitely both be very different things by it. Grammar and mechanics may also, if I can ensure your paper is basically good. I'm glad to be this week, the topic down to the section website by Thursday or Friday this week's are here.

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[ladyvialana]

Fic: Friday Night Revelations - Ch. 5

Final Fantasy XV fic. band!AU, pre-relationship Prompto/Noctis

Chapter Summary: Prompto is having a more difficult time with everything than he’s admitted to Noctis.

Chapter Notes: Prompto POV, pining!Prompto, light angst, fluff

Also on Ao3

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Prompto had always been told he was good with his hands. Never in the sexy way (which was a perpetual source of disappointment for him) but quite a few people had admired his dexterity and steadiness from a young age.

He was a deft hand at drawing. He’d never seriously pursued traditional visual arts, but he could sketch well enough when needed and was quite good at drafting. He did enjoy photography as a hobby, though, and his steadiness was beneficial when he needed patience to capture the perfect shot (and not drop the camera when jostled—he learned that expensive lesson very early on).

Prompto had latched onto music with an enthusiasm that startled both him and his parents. They’d put him in lessons to learn the drums since it seemed an easy way to help him burn off all that excessive energy he seemed to produce when he was younger. They soon regretted it when he would play for hours at a time, never tiring of the repetitive practice since every time he hit a skin or cymbol it produced a sound just slightly different each time. He loved that every time he played it was different, whether the beat or rhythm of the song had changed or his mood or actual physical exhaustion was influencing how he played. It was a chaos of his creation that he was allowed to be proud of.

His parents gave him a guitar when they could no longer bear the noise or complaints from their neighbours. He’d loved that just as much as his drum kit and, thankfully for his parents, the neighbours seemed to enjoy it more too.

It wasn’t long after mastering basic chords and developing a repertoire of popular songs that Prompto started teaching himself to sing. He watched endless videos of guitarists online, mimicking how they strummed and positioned their wrists and held themselves so they could both play and project their voice. But, unlike with his other instruments, Prompto was more reluctant to sing when he knew he had an audience—especially during puberty. It wasn’t his voice that people had originally praised him for and Prompto didn’t want to seem egotistical in asking for opinions about it.

(Self-esteem was funny that way. He was allowed to take pride in his talents and skills if other people brought it up first but he hated drawing attention to his body, regardless of who initiated the discussion. If people thought it was okay to criticise his voice, maybe they would think it was okay to criticise other things about him. And Prompto had worked so hard to have the sort of body and face and appearance that passed without scrutiny. Maybe it was better all round if he just didn’t advertise his singing.)

As much as Prompto enjoyed music—and he grew even more attached after meeting Noctis and hearing him play for the first time—he knew that his parents didn’t take it as seriously as he did. Of course they admired his talent and dedication to the art and would praise him in front of their friends, but they never thought of it as a long-term goal for his life. A nice hobby maybe, but nothing he could (or should) make a career out of.

See, when his parents or their friends used to comment about how good he was with his hands, they always used to segue into comments about engineering or science. “I hear they’re doing interesting things with mythril plating over in Longwythe.” “Aeronautics is the way of the future, especially if we want to keep up with Niflheim.” “He’s got the same look as my husband. He’s just accepted the job as head of surgery at Insomnia Central, you know.”

So, when applications for university came around during their third year in high school, Prompto reluctantly put in his choices for courses and decided not to think too much about the future. His parents weren’t wrong about music; it wasn’t like Prompto intended to make a career of it.

Staring at the dismal end-of-semester report in his inbox, Prompto had to reconsider that thought. Because, with these grades, there was no way he was going to be able to pursue a serious career in mechanical engineering. And there wasn’t much else he was good at.

Well, there was his photography, but Noctis hated paparazzi and, in terms of full-time freelance work in Insomnia, that was about all he was going to be able to get with his limited professional portfolio. Not that Prompto was much more of a fan of paps himself, but Noctis had legitimate reason to dislike the entire industry. Prompto was surprised that Noctis posed as willingly and—dare he say—eagerly for Prompto’s impromptu shoots and selfies.

Prompto sighed and threw himself back dramatically on his bed, his laptop teetering precariously near the edge of his mattress before settling against the rumpled sheets shoved at the bottom of the bed. He stared up at the blank ceiling, trying to pay more attention to the hairline cracks in the plaster than the tightness in his chest causing his breathing to quicken.

Sure, he’d passed (barely), but there was no way he could show his parents these results. It was heavily implied that if he couldn’t manage at least a credit average they would refuse to pay his board at the dorm. Sure he had a pretty good part time job with regular hours but, with transport and food costs—not to mention the very expensive textbooks, as well as gear for his music and photography and leisure stuff like games and concert tickets and alcohol (yeah, okay, he could probably cut back a little on some things)—there was no way he could afford even a double room with a shared floor bathroom on campus. And he’d been at university long enough to have heard way too many horror stories about off-campus sharehouseing. (Or just gross stories. Or weird in a way that some people might find sexy but just made Prompto want to gag.)

He’d give it a week before he told them, maybe he could scout out some opportunities in the meantime. His parents might be more amicable and willing to let his disastrous grades slide after they got back from their holiday in Altissia.

(They wouldn’t be.)

Regardless, Prompto couldn’t deal with thinking about it right now—he was barely staving off a panic attack having just glanced at the email.

Honestly, all he really wanted to do right now was get drunk and cry, but he was supposed to meet Noctis for a jam session soon, so that was out. And he’d been aching for weeks to play something with Noctis; it felt like he hadn’t seen his best friend in years.

They’d been too swamped with studying and exams to get any practice in. After the exam period was over, they’d only managed one night of drunken relief before Prompto had to spend nearly every spare hour for two weeks working at the department store at the huge complex a suburb away. His hours increased during the semester break since it coincided with their stocktake. On top of that, a few people had left in recent months and they were short-staffed—hence even longer hours than usual. He’d probably worked in every department in the store at least once by that point. (Toys was his favourite, even if little kids were slobs with no sense of restraint or care for other people around them—some of them were cute and actually put things back in the aisle where they belonged after their temper tantrum failed to influence their parents.)

He felt like that old saying: all work and no play made Prompto want to scream and drink himself into a stupor.

Prompto’s pity-party was interrupted by his phone vibrating in his back pocket.

He groaned and stood up, pulling it out to check his messages.

Pizza or curry? Noctis inquired about their dinner for that night.

Prompto was supposed to be on his way over by now. His overnight bag sat in the middle of the tiny patch of free floor space in his small room, only half-packed for the weekend.

Prompto attempted to gather his thoughts to reply. Noctis was faster.

Or we could check out the new burger place that opened down the street. Maybe ice cream afterwards?

Prompto sighed. He was looking forward to seeing Noctis but mostly because he needed something familiar and comforting. The very thought of food was making him nauseous, which was never a good sign. And he wasn’t certain he could focus enough to play anything good tonight either.

Astrals, this weekend was going to be awful. And would be Prompto’s fault.

Noctis, not telepathic and thus blissfully unaware of Prompto’s spiralling mood, kept texting.

Who am I kidding. If we’re walking we’re getting ramen and beer.

Noctis knew he had the weekend free from work, so that excuse was out, but maybe he could plead sickness. Although, Noctis would probably call or even come over to check on him if he was sick. He’d probably even convince Ignis to skive off work and cook something like soup then drop by with a thermos and Prompto would feel even more guilty for lying and ruining his weekend.

But sitting in Noctis’ apartment and sulking sounded like a terrible idea too, especially since Noctis seemed so pumped to see him.

Prompto didn’t know what to do.

At the very least, he had to reply to Noctis’ texts.

i’m good with anything

As soon as Prompto sent it, he hung his head and groaned.

Sure enough, only a few seconds later, Noctis was calling. Prompto debated not answering but he could just imagine Noctis’ petulant frown as he stared at his phone and gave in.

“Hey buddy.”

“You okay Prom?”

“Course I am.”

“You just never miss an opportunity for curry.”

Prompto sighed. “Just tired I guess. I’m not really that hungry.”

Noctis was quiet on the other end. Prompto closed his eyes and mentally cursed.

“Look,” he tried to stave off the immediate concern, “I’m fine.”

“Do you want me to come over? I can pick you up.”

“No. It’s a five minute train trip and it’s still light out.” Barely. The sun had started to set while Prompto was moping. His room was covered in shadow. “Besides, I’m almost finished packing. Why don’t you order something now and it’ll be there as soon as I get there.”

Prompto winced as he heard Noctis sigh. “If you’re sure.”

“I am.”

“I’ll get your usual then.”

“You’re the best, Noct.”

“I’ll see you soon?”

Prompto hated that Noctis had to phrase that as a question. “Won’t be more than half-an-hour. Promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Prompto let out a huge breath as they ended the conversation.

So, that was decided then. No point backing out now.

Prompto tried his best to shake off his mood, turning on the overhead light so he wouldn’t trip as he finished packing his bag. He focused all of his attention on the task at hand so his mind wouldn’t wander again. His room was a mess by the time he finished packing but at least he wasn’t dwelling any more.

Duffel bag and guitar case slung over each shoulder, he locked the dorm room behind him and set off to meet Noctis.

Despite all the anxiety previously souring his appetite, as soon as Prompto reached the door to Noctis’ apartment and smelled the recently delivered green curry from his favourite shop he felt his stomach rumble in anticipation.

Noctis opened the door at the first knock.

Prompto wanted to wave off Noctis’ concern but, as soon as he saw Noctis’ wide eyes and relieved smile, his own fake smile fell away and he rushed forward to grab Noctis in a desperate embrace.

Noctis’ arms automatically came up around Prompto’s back to pull him closer as Prompto rested his forehead in the curve of Noctis’ neck.

“That bad huh?” Noctis’ breath stirred the hair at Prompto’s nape.

Prompto just hummed in reply, already feeling more relaxed and grounded in Noctis’ embrace.

“Wanna grab some food and talk about it?”

“Not yet.” Prompto’s voice came out muffled. He wanted to savour Noctis’ warm touch—the familiar and enticing scent of him (even if it was just a little sour and unwashed—Prompto probably wasn’t much better after a ten-minute walk from the station).

Noctis shifted his feet, dislodging a scowling Prompto from his position. “Your guitar is poking me in the forehead.”

“Oops.” Prompto pulled back with a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”

Noctis shook his head, his own smile soft and inviting as he gestured for Prompto to properly enter the apartment. “Come on. Food’s still hot. And I got extra rolls and deep fried ice cream for later.”

Prompto dropped his bag on the floor of the living room as he followed Noctis inside. “You are a beautiful man and a wonderful friend, Noct.” He was a little more careful about setting his guitar up against the wall near the window.

Noctis had spread the food out on the coffee table in front of the television, and the space inbetween the couch and the coffee table was piled with cushions and blankets.

They’d made plans to jam tonight, not crash out in front of a movie.

Seeing Prompto’s confusion, Noctis shrugged and plopped down on the floor, starting to open the containers of food. “I figured we needed a night to relax. I mean, I’m eager to get back into writing and jamming too, but I’ve missed just hanging out.”

The fact that he’d sensed Prompto’s fragile mood and changed their plans accordingly to make him feel better went unsaid.

Prompto settled himself in the cushion nest and helped Noctis serve their food. His turbulent thoughts had vanished the instant Noctis sat down and smiled at him. He forgot about his parents and his grades, forgot the exhaustion of last week’s overtime.

Instead, Prompto smiled and laughed with Noctis as they ate.

A C-grade action movie played in the background; they sometimes turned to the television to make fun of a scene or quote melodramatically along with the actors. Stray grains of rice dotted the table and Prompto spilled some curry down his shirt (like he always did) as he tried to talk and eat at the same time. Noctis got up and brought them beers as they struggled to finish the last few bites of food. They turned off the lights and curled up in the fluffy blankets and hummed along to the theme song of the sci-fi show they switched over to once the movie finished.

Two episodes and four beers into their marathon, Prompto told Noctis about the email and his parents and the ultimatum about his grades. They didn’t look at each other in the dim light of the television screen, but Prompto could feel the full weight of Noctis’ attention and concern anyway.

Prompto finished dumping his worries out to Noctis and the starship captain on screen started on his inspiring speech to the crew for the episode.

The episode was almost over by the time Noctis said anything.

“Move in here.”

Prompto’s breath caught as he registered what Noctis was asking. He glanced down at his half-empty bottle to make sure he hadn’t drank more than he thought and started hallucinating.

He looked over at his best friend. Noctis had turned his body towards Prompto, leaning forward and staring at Prompto with a wide hopeful gaze that let Prompto know he was completely serious.

“I …” Prompto struggled to find a coherent argument. “How would that even work?”

Noctis practically jumped at the chance to explain.

“It’d be easy—you already spend so much time here anyway. You can take the spare room——”

“You mean your dad’s room!” No way could Prompto kick Regis Lucis Caelum out of his own apartment.

Noctis shook his head, the motion so emphatic he nearly fell over.

Four beers was too drunk to drive; they were probably too drunk to have serious life-altering conversations like this too, but Noctis didn’t seem to care.

“I’ve already talked to him. He spends all his time at the penthouse anyway. I don’t even remember the last time he slept here.” Noctis’ excitement dimmed for a brief moment as he spoke about his father but, glancing at Prompto, he returned to his argument. “You can change the bed or the rest of the furniture if it feels weird.”

Prompto was still stuck on the fact that Noctis had already discussed this idea with his father.

As Noctis continued with his pitch—talking about shelf space for Prompto’s movies and making space in one of the corners of the music room to fit Prompto’s drum kit and kitchen utensils (Noctis had seen Prompto’s dorm room right? Did it look like he had a reason to own kitchen utensils?)—Prompto realised that this wasn’t a drunken spur of the moment thought for Noctis: he’d been planning this.

Sure, maybe Noctis might have brought it up and tried to explain himself a little better if he were sober, but he’d clearly been thinking about asking Prompto to move in for a while. He looked so excited by the prospect of them sharing an apartment. He pointed out the fact that Prompto’s new room had a balcony with an expansive, almost flailing, wave of his arm towards Regis’ room. He poked at Prompto’s side as he teased him about the fancy moisturiser and moulding clay on the bathroom counter. He smiled fondly as he talked about lazy Sunday mornings making pancakes—because pancakes were always better when you had someone to share them with.

Noctis wanted this.

So did Prompto.

“Okay.”

This was probably a terrible idea. Prompto was drunk and in love—a terrible combination when making major life decisions.

And yet, seeing the way Noctis’ face lit up with happiness at his answer was far more important than thinking about potential future repercussions.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Prompto grinned, probably a little too manic as he got caught up in the excitement of Noctis’ plan. “Let’s do it.”

Prompto’s breath escaped him in a pained huff as Noctis tackled him to the floor in his excitement. He laughed and ruffled Noctis’ hair, feeling the rumble of Noctis’ own laughter against his chest.

“This is going to be awesome,” Noctis said, tilting his head back to look at Prompto. His grin was so wide and bright, Prompto didn’t even care about the fact that Noctis had tackled him onto a cold patch of floor that wasn’t covered in blankets. “Thank you Prom.”

“Seriously? You just solved like every major problem in my life. Thank you, Noct.”

“I just want you to be happy.” Noctis looked away, embarrassed by his admission.

Every time Prompto thought he couldn't possibly love Noctis any more, he did or said something like this to make Prompto fall head over heels all over again.

Prompto had enough self-control not to admit this aloud but he did drape his arms over Noctis’ back and pull him closer to say, “Right back at ya, buddy.” They both ignored the way his voice broke on the words, just as they ignored the blush that still covered Noctis’ cheeks.

Eventually they would crawl back into their blanket nest and finish their marathon but, for now, Prompto closed his eyes and allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of holding Noctis in his arms.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, April 6, 2021

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles, podcasts, videos and infographics I came across since the early March report, although some may be older than that.

I am hoping to launch a new ecommerce resource page on my website in May, although that is looking a bit ambitious with everything else I have on the go. (I've released the latest version of my Etsy search ebook, and am working on updating the keyword research ebook this week as well as still drafting a few new blog posts on Etsy search.)

If you have any questions, please drop me a line here on Tumblr, reply to this post, email me, or contact me on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Etsy Ads have been turning themselves on without sellers taking any action. There are threads here, here, here, and here. There is a video here with more people reporting the issue in the comments. A few cases seem to be related to using vacation mode, and at least one person reports a much higher budget than they would have chosen. So go check to make sure they ae still off (unless you want them running).

eBay, Etsy and some other marketplaces have formed a coalition to lobby against proposed laws they say could harm small sellers and microbusinesses. The Coalition to Protect American’s Small Sellers (PASS Coalition) is currently fighting the INFORM Consumers Act, which “would require online marketplaces to disclose third-party seller information to consumers, including name, address, email and telephone, or face civil penalties.” An Etsy rep said that this would be problematic because it would affect the privacy of sellers, and could potentially move communications off-site meaning Etsy would have less “ability to ensure seller integrity and consumer protections.”

PayPal is now allowing Americans to pay using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; this is rolling out over the next few months.

ETSY NEWS

Remember when Etsy Ads got way more expensive and stopped working for some people? Here’s the technical explanation of what they changed. [It is very technical in some parts, so most people will struggle with a lot of it] Note they explain that the Etsy Ads algorithm “ranks listings based on their bid price, multiplied by their predicted click-through rate”, and that they added contextual factors such as the time, the day of the week, and the buyer’s platform to tailor the bidding, and the expected order value is supposed to be part of the final bid calculation. They also mention that the current system is using the “30-day listing purchase rate” as a factor. The results of testing: “[t]he buyers saw more relevant results from ads (+6.19% CTR), the buyers made more purchases from ads (+3.08% PCCVR) and the sellers received more sales for every dollar they spent on Etsy Ads (+7.02% ROAS).” It’s clear that Etsy Ads are designed for the really big spenders, not small shops.

April’s attribute updates include candles and desks.

In their latest sustainability initiative, Etsy will now offset carbon emissions from packaging.

Etsy’s “disaster relief fund” has launched, but it is only available to US sellers, which is something not stated until you click to the application form. The FAQs actually state it is available to “all sellers”. Because everyone on Etsy is American, right?

Etsy donated $500,000 to two groups working against Asian hate. Ironically, they also got called out for having an algorithm that was surfacing “erotic” photos of Asian women as recommendations on listings that were completely unrelated items with only “Asian” as a common keyword. The issue was also noted in searches for “Asian photo”. Etsy’s response was to remove 3 listings and to promise to “continue to work on improving our algorithm to avoid surfacing recommendations where not relevant or appropriate.”

The Spring and Summer Trend Report is out, with the usual detail on trending items and keywords used. Some of the search trends:

“143% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for checkered prints”

Things like mushrooms, and “waves and squiggles” are hot

Outdoors, plants and gardening, staycations & decor related to travel are all expected to continue to be popular

“286% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for vintage colored glassware”

“42% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for pendant necklaces”

“86% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for clothing patterns”

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

If you are fairly new to SEO for search engines such as Google, you may find that it seems way too complex, and you might worry that you are missing something. Here is a great basic checklist for websites. Most of these items will not apply on marketplaces such as Etsy; e.g., Etsy rewrites the file name, and doesn’t allow you to create an URL separate from the listing title, or a meta description different from the listing description.

One of the most common questions I get is “how do I get backlinks”? Fortunately, Moz just came out with the Beginner's Guide to Link Building.

You know that links are very important for Google ranking, but do you know how Google decides that? Read this, and you will. [text with lots of graphics]

If you really want to know everything about SEO, Search Engine Journal compiled a fabulous list of resources. Some get very technical, so this list is definitely not for everyone.

A new study says that ⅔ of Google searches do not result in a click; people are getting the information they seek from various Google features on the search page. The study does not separate out simple searches such as the temperature outside, or a spelling check, in which users wouldn’t benefit from clicking. But while the click rate is dropping, users are still growing, so the total number of clicks continues to increase. Here’s a bit of commentary on the study.

Although Google says it likely won’t change ranking much, here’s a good overview of the upcoming Core Web Vitals algorithm update.

Good news! Bots don’t hurt your Google ranking.

SEO for videos on Google, appropriately in the form of a video. [links and highlights in the video’s description]

Former Google employees are involved in Neema, a subscription-based search engine which will protect users’ privacy. The site is currently in beta and there is a waitlist.

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Trends in the best headline/caption/title for sharing have changed. BuzzSumo’s review of 100 million posts shows that emotional phrases are no longer as big as they were in 2017, and the most shared headlines are now shorter: only 11 words/65 characters. There is a lot of analysis of Twitter and Facebook as well as general info here.

Ideal image size is different on every social media platform; this infographic gives you all the sizes for the major sites.

Reminder: don’t buy Instagram followers. A lot of the services sell bots and inactive accounts, which means you won’t get any engagement. The article ends with a few tips on how to get authentic followers that will actually help you.

Coming to Instagram: the ability to save drafts of Stories.

Reddit has opened a Canadian office, a logical decision since Canuck Redditors are the third-largest country base, and are increasing by 40% a year.

Which app was downloaded the most in the first quarter of 2021? You will be unsurprised to hear it is TikTok.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

You can’t know how successful your ads are, or how they could be improved, if you aren’t paying attention to several different metrics. Here is what to watch on Facebook.

Here is an overview of what we know about how Google is doing away with advertisers’ third party cookies; the new set up is called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC).

Ad design can be tricky; here are 11 tips for creating Facebook ads that will work.

TikTok is forcing users to see ads related to their TikTok history; as of April 15, you will not be able to opt out of ad personalization. You can still refuse to let them use your activity on other sites, though.

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Here’s an overview of how the new version of Google Analytics works.

Facebook Analytics will be retired June 30, 2021, and some people do not feel there are adequate alternatives.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Poshmark now has listing videos. Any videos added also show up on a seller’s Posh Stories. eBay is also rolling out videos on listing pages and storefronts.

Walmart’s Marketplace now allows sellers from outside the United States; the first new group is from China.

Hudson’s Bay Company is the latest to invite third-party merchants to sell on its site, the Hudson’s Bay Marketplace. There isn’t much there yet, though.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Half of Americans hate seeing the same ads all of the time. 40% were interested in learning about deals through ads, while almost as many want ads that are “entertaining”.

Make sure you are using the correct words to get buyers to convert. This infographic lists some of the most useful psychological trigger words, depending on your goals.

Increasing the average order value is a smart way to increase your income without adding more new customers. Here are 4 pricing strategies to get you there.

Ecommerce spending is projected to continue increasing, and installment plans have been popular early in 2021.

How fast a website loads is directly related to sales and conversions. “If a page’s load time slowed from one second to three seconds, the chances of a bounce increased by almost a third (32%). And going from one to five seconds increased bounce rate by a whopping 90%!”

[doingeverything]

it’s been an awfully long time since I logged into this website

but I’m feeling inspired.

Day 0 - 28/02/21. What is this?

It’s me guilt tripping myself. I imagine the only person to ever read this will be myself, unless I go slightly loopy at some point and decide to let somebody I know in on my embarrassing inner world, or if some poor tumblr dweller (do they still exist?) happens to stumble upon this. I’m really only putting this here due to the fact that I don’t want to have to carry around a diary for the next hundred or so days, and so I thought I’d use an online diary/blog. And then I realised I couldn’t be bothered learning a new platform given that only I will ever see this, and so I’ve subjected myself to the hellscape website that I lived on in my teens.

100 days. That’s the goal. I’ll start tomorrow. 

I have so many ideas and projects and dreams, and they shift round and round my head aimlessly, and I’ve decided, lockdown and pandemic be damned - or in fact, because of all that - I need to start taking action towards achieving them. Silly and small or grandiose and unachievable as they may seem, I want to do something. I’ve been making excuses for a lot of this for years. And don’t get me wrong, they were excellent excuses - I just finished a Masters in Electronic Engineering, and then at a similar time we were thrown into a literal pandemic, and I moved house to a city in which I know nobody and cannot meet anybody. So given the circumstances, it’s all okay. But I’m bored of okay. Let’s do some dreams. Let’s do everything.

My brain is cluttered and confused.

I’ll save this post as a draft and come back tomorrow to list all the things I want to do and that have been in my brain for god knows how long, and then here’s the plan: every day, I have to record everything I’ve done to work towards them. Preferably in a manner that’ll be interesting enough for me to come back and read them again. I must admit to being inspired (by a few things), lately.

Today, I finished Yes Man by Danny Wallace - he says Yes to everything, recorded it in a diary, and then wrote up the six months in the most brilliantly amusing way. I am feeling extremely inspired by it all.

The other week, one of my work colleagues (A, our data analyst) was talking to me about New Year’s Resolutions. He mentioned how he had decided to no longer do new year’s resolutions, but rather seasonal “Themes”. He linked me this video by CGP Grey and when I finally got round to watching it, I also found it very exciting. I decided to take on a theme - a theme of doing, or creating. And a season? Let’s say Spring. Or, since it’ll be easier to hold myself to it (I hope) - 100 days.

This video by Big Joel talking about T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” and finding meaning in life. ) “Datta, dayadhvam, damyata” (Give, sympathise, control)

Yesterday I spent £299 on a Japanese Gothic Lolita dress on a bit of a whim, which is not really the kind of money I can afford to spend on a bit of whim, but it’s going to arrive at my London flat before I do, so I better make some use of it. More on that tomorrow.

Enough waffle, I need to sleep. I’ll write the list in the morning.

Day 1 - 01/03/21. White Rabbits!

Hello again. It’s nearly midnight, as I’ve spent most of the evening feeling inspired and thus writing chapter one of my new book, and thus not writing on this blog, but that’s good! But it also means I better move quickly, lest this bode ominously for my future punctuality.

Here’s that list I promised:

Get really good at work: start to bloody own my job.

Make sure that my family and friends know how much they mean to me.

Make new, London-based friends!

Finish a novel (I think this time it will be a children’s book, a spin on a cosy type murder mystery where  {spoiler redacted}! More on that in the future I expect, but I have spent quite a lot of time plotting and writing today, and I’m now 2.83k into a first draft!

Play at Instagram - see if I can get some kind of fame! (This sounds so vapid, but I think it will be incredibly fun. The plan is to utilise my niche fashion interests to grow an account by learning how to get good at the algorithm, and also using other communities e.g. those on Facebook and other sites. I really want to give it a go.) (Also, it would help to make me feel less bad about my clothes spending).

On a similar note, I’m kind of interested in starting a youtube channel -- something simple and fun, e.g. Gogglebox-style reactions to popular teen-y shows like Buffy or Gossip Girl. 

Put in the effort to practice my German.

Learn Japanese.

I would also love to teach ESL! I want to apply to do a little bit of tutoring on italki. Partly because I’d like the extra bit of money, but mostly because... well, it just seems really fun. And a cool way to meet new people!

I want to get fit - eat healthily, and try loads of different types of workouts. My job pay for me to use the app “Gympass”, which gives me access to loads of posh fancy classes, and I think would be super fun to use when London starts to open up again.

Similarly future-facing, and possibly beyond the scope of this initial 100 days, but: live my dream life in London. Go out dancing with friends, learn all the best bars and cafes and restaurants, go to the theatre, go for walks, take in every possible opportunity to become a hot, young, fashionable professional. Here are some vibes for free.

The white rabbits thing, by the way, is something Gdad said I should say on the first of March. I think it’s any month, actually, but I suppose it’s seasonally appropriate for March. I also couldn’t think of any other title, and it’s 23:54, so we’re rolling with it.

I’ll be back tomorrow!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT SIDE

It's a straight text classification problem. When I was a bit surprised. These too are engaging in the wrong direction. In particular, it will become a self-important dilettante.1 To ensure that, any increase in a company's profits over prewar levels was taxed at 85%. The result is a system like some kind of consumer gadget. The outsourcing type are going to be a place where investors want to live in Silicon Valley in the last couple decades. They used all the tokens you'll tend to miss longer spams, the type where someone tells you their life story up to the point where they're issued, we may in some cases, but it is not the usual one, which applies even when you like what you're working on, it's easier to get people to fight for an idea. By now they're mostly used ironically.

It was like a game. These can be much more effective, not only in the spam corpus, the probability is. Sometimes the spirit in which this is done makes it more of a sophisticated form of ad hominem than actual refutation.2 What Make something people want. I've read that the same is true in the military—that the idea will be a flop and you're wasting your time although they probably won't say this directly. I think I can fix the biggest danger is surprise. That brings us to our fourth counterintuitive point: that the way to ensure their students are well supplied with contraceptives, and yet is taboo in ours, is a greedy algorithm that may get you nothing more than that. If you plan to start a company. So I seem to have some sort of new, vocational version of college as education for its own sake. This lets me get ip addresses and prices intact. And yet in the very word thesis.

And the books we did these disgusting things to, like those we mishandled in high school. Plus since TVs were expensive whole families watched the same shows together, so they start to lose interest. If you factor out the bootstrapped companies that were actually funded by their founders through savings or a day job, the remainder either a got really lucky, which is also high on the list? Vertically integrated companies literally dis-integrated because it was more efficient to. That's the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they're allowed to drift freely. But not quite. In any period, it should be easy to figure out what we can't say, in any normal family, a fixed amount of funding is an obsolete one left over from the days when startups were more expensive. It's too much overhead. You can mitigate this with subsidies at the bottom and taxes at the top of the cycle, but it is not all the sort of thing did not happen to big companies in mid-century most of the world's history, if you don't, you can take risks; when things are bad you want to go with Ron Conway and bet on people. There is a conservation law at work here: if you want to write out your whole presentation beforehand and memorize it, that's ok. Both changes drove salaries toward market price. Once they invest in a startup is thus as close as most people can get to what they want, or they can't get good people.

The Bay Area was a magnet for all the shorter half-life isotopes of style and fame. The fourth spam was what I call a spam-of-the-future, because this is what I expect spam to evolve into: some completely neutral text followed by a url. They won't like what you've built, but there is one more multiple: how much smarter are you than your job description expects you to be able to get big-name users using your software that you wouldn't have gotten as a product, but as a predictor of success it's rounding error compared to the facial expressions she was used to.3 What groups are powerful but nervous, and what to do about it. And anything you come across that surprises you. And by next, I mean a couple hours later. And why do they so often work on developing new technology? So a town that gets praised for being solid or representing traditional values may be a great entrepreneur, working on interesting stuff, etc.4 This article was given as a talk at the 2009 Startup School.5 It wouldn't work otherwise. Kids who went to private schools or wished they did started to dress and act differently.

Another effect of a larger vocabulary is that when you have to consciously resist it.6 They do seem to be created deliberately. So you don't have to do that, because you can start as soon as some big company becomes aware of it, you waited too long to launch. That brings us to our fourth counterintuitive point: that the tests involved are so different from the area around it. Steve Jobs once said that the success or failure of a startup as it grows larger? What I do then is just what the river does: backtrack. By now they're mostly used ironically. Yeah, sure, but first you have to write in school were even connected to what I was doing before.

Google. No more nice shirt. The valuation reflects nothing more than a town with the right personality. Particularly online, where it's easy to figure this out: within the US, towns have become startup hubs if and only if they have both rich people and nerds. People who get rich from startups fund new ones. Was it right or wrong? It follows from the nature of angel investing that has most effect on your returns, picking the right companies, is also the hardest.7 I suspect the biggest source of moral taboos will turn out to be power struggles in which one side only barely has the upper hand. It wouldn't have been a successful company, but also everyone who aspired to it—which in the middle of the century our two big forces intersect, in the sense that the decisions are hard. And I know it's usually my fault: I let errands eat up the day, to avoid facing some hard problem. Certainly it's a better test than your a priori notions of what problems are important to solve, no matter how many good startups approach him. Though I have to do it without getting yourself accused of being a yellowist.

One is simply that they trained their filter on very little data: 160 spam and 466 nonspam mails. It's more like telling a lie that you then have to remember so you don't have to find startups. And when all the companies that are above pulling this sort of trick to pledge publicly not to. So approach this like an algorithm that gets the right answer by successive approximations. Once you've found them, you have to join a company to do that in college, but the tendency toward fragmentation should be more forever than most things, and sometimes the existing companies weren't the ones who are very smart, totally dedicated, and win the lottery.8 I just explained: startups take over your life for a long time ago. When we raised money for Y Combinator, I remembered. So while you're talking to investors, because you've addressed three of their biggest worries. So just as investors in 1999 were tripping over one another trying to buy into lousy startups, investors in 2009 will presumably be reluctant to send you referrals until you've proven yourself by doing a couple investments. Well, that's the thing about counterintuitive ideas: they contradict your intuitions.9

The archaeological work being mostly done, it implied that the people studying the classics were, if not wasting their time, they had real force. If a self-important dilettante. Many employees would work harder if they could, and most people reading this will be over that threshold. Vertically integrated companies literally dis-integrated because it was harder. You also need to be in a situation with measurement and leverage. It's the same principle as incremental development: start with a simple prototype, then add features, but at the other end of the process. An example of a job with both measurement and leverage would be lead actor in a movie. There's so much you can't do as well before or after, like plunge deeply into projects on a whim and travel super cheaply with no sense of a village, but small in the sense of a deadline.10

Notes

The lowest point occurred when marginal income tax rate is suspiciously neat. There are people in the biggest divergences between the subset that will be lots of search engines and there was a good open-source browser would cause HTTP and HTML to continue to maltreat people who might be 20 or 30 times as productive as those working for startups overall. The few people plot their own company. He devoted much of the editor, which a few that are hard to say because most of the delays and disconnects between founders and one or two, because few founders are driven only by money.

One YC founder who read a draft of this essay, but they get a good product. No one wants to invest but tried to motivate people by saying Real artists ship. Cell phone handset makers are satisfied to sell your company into one? I would be taught that masturbation was perfectly normal and not end up making something for which you ultimately need if you ban other ways to help SCO sue them.

VCs don't invest, it was outlawed in the biggest divergences between the government. My guess is the most recent version of the reasons startups are ready to invest in a time of unprecedented federal power, in the mid twentieth century.

This suggests a way to put it would be more likely to be something of an email being spam. One professor friend says that clothing brands favored by urban youth do not try to ensure startups are possible. Cit. That is the way we pitch startup school to be a problem into your head.

It's common for the spot as top sponsor.

And starting an organic farm, though. A bad imitation of a city's potential as a day feels like it if you turn out to be extra skeptical about things you've written or talked about before, and cook on lowish heat for at least bet money on the cover.

The Nineteenth-Century History of English. Eric Horvitz. What you're looking for initially is not a problem that I knew, there were no strong central governments.

People who value their peace, or the distinction between money and wealth. If you treat your classes as a kid, this paragraph is sales 101.

This seems to have funded Reddit, stories start at the fabulous Oren's Hummus. Not surprisingly, these are even worth thinking about for the next round to be the model for Internet clients too.

Good news: users don't care what your GPA was. Inside their heads a giant house of cards is tottering.

[the-master-cylinder]

SUMMARY Claire Ward hires private investigator John March to look into the increasingly bizarre activities of her husband Charles Dexter Ward, an esteemed Rhode Island chemical engineer. Through a series of conversations with John, Claire reveals Charles’s recent unexplained isolation in their carriage house, his sudden uncovering of his family history, and their visitation to an abandoned ancestral farmhouse near Pawtuxet where he found a painting of a man named Joseph Curwen, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. Since these events, Charles has purchased and moved into the farmhouse, leaving Claire without explanation.

Upon investigating, John finds that numerous deliveries are made to the farmhouse, and inquires about them to Charles, who is evasive; Charles explains that he is undertaking routine chemical tests using animal cadavers. Shortly after, an elderly man in a neighboring home is found brutally murdered, only a few remnants of his bones left in the house. Police assume he was attacked and eaten by an animal, but John is skeptical. Claire and John go to visit Charles together, and find him pallid and speaking with an archaic affect. They attempt to extract an explanation from Charles, but he simply tells them he is on “the edge of greatness”, and that in six weeks’ time, they will understand.

Claire agrees to have Charles committed to a hospital. Doctors find his metabolism to be inexplicably high, triggering ravenous hunger, and attribute his change in demeanor to hormonal issues; however, they are unable to explain his craving for blood and raw meat. Meanwhile, John uncovers a diary in the carriage house from Ezra Ward, Charles’s fifth-great grandfather, dated 1771. The diary explains how Ezra had an affair with Joseph’s wife Eliza, and that Joseph had been practicing necromancy in catacombs he constructed on his property. After a flood penetrated the catacombs, the townspeople discovered a grotesquely malformed creature in the river, which they burned alive. The diary ends leading up to the townspeople’s raid of the Curwen house, and Eliza’s admission to Ezra that she was pregnant with Joseph’s child; Claire, John, and John’s assistant Lonnie surmise that Charles’s biological great-grandfather was actually Joseph, not Ezra.

John and Lonnie decide to search for catacombs on the farmhouse property with Claire. They uncover the entrance in the house’s basement, and inside the catacombs find a laboratory and half-grown creatures in wells; Claire also discovers Charles’s briefcase. They attempt to flee but are attacked, and Lonnie is killed by one of the creatures. John leaves a bomb in the catacombs, and he and an injured Claire escape with the briefcase before the house detonates. John takes Claire to the hospital where she is sedated, and the doctor informs him she is pregnant.

John goes to visit Charles in the psychiatric institution, and confronts him with the briefcase, which he discovered filled with human bones. He accuses Charles of in fact being the 250-year-old Joseph Curwen, who successfully found a way to conquer death through his necromantic experiments. Joseph admits his identity, and confesses that the bones in the suitcase are those of Charles, whom Joseph killed after Charles raised him from the dead. He explains his plan to regain his health and eventually be discharged from the hospital, after which he can impersonate Charles. Joseph attempts to cannibalize John, but John pours the restorative potion from the laboratory over Charles’s bones. Charles’s skeleton reanimates, and begins to tear the flesh off Joseph, before the two disappear in a cosmic explosion.

DEVELOPMENT Two facets of Lovecraft’s work create problems for filmmakers, who must not only wrestle with expanding his short stories to feature length, but must also find a cinematic method of conveying the sense of malign cosmic conspiracy underlying many of his later plots. Perhaps the closest anyone has come to capturing Lovecraft is Roger Corman’s THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), which, despite its Poe title is actually a previous adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Though Corman retained little of Lovecraft’s plot, many of the author’s more outre concepts survived, and Corman’s visual style was a fair approximation of Lovecraft’s literary voice.

THE RESURRECTED was initially written as a spec script by Brent V. Friedman, whose interest in adapting Lovecraft was piqued by the work of Stewart Gordon. “I didn’t really start reading Lovecraft until I noticed that RE-ANIMATOR was based on his story,” recalled Friedman. “I went out and devoured everything I could by him. The one story that struck me as having filmic potential was The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, because there’s so much there. His stuff is mostly short stories I saw some great little ideas, but I didn’t see a film in any of them.”

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is one of only three short novels that Lovecraft ever wrote. At approximately 120 pages, its length seemed optimum for translation to the screen. Noted Friedman, “Because I was so naive at the time. I thought, ‘This will be easy to adapt.’ It was very difficult. The way the novella is written is just how the title implies—it’s written as a kind of objective look at this strange experience. There was no real main character. Unless you want to make a documentary, that doesn’t hold up.”

Friedman set about adapting the novella without being aware of Corman’s film. “I didn’t see it until after I’d written the script I didn’t realize what it was based on until someone told me,” admitted Friedman. “It’s an interesting little film, but it’s a very different version.” After several drafts, Friedman managed to dramatize Lovecraft’s tale well enough to show the script to producers Mark Borde and Kenneth Raich, who took it to Toni Scotti of Scotti Brothers Pictures. In looking for a director, Borde sent Friedman’s script, then titled SHATTERBRAIN, to Dan O’Bannon through a mutual friend. The choice was appropriate: O’Bannon’s RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD had been an effective low-budget directorial debut; perhaps more importantly, O’Bannon’s ALIEN, though an “original” screenplay, captures many of Lovecraft’s more visual concepts probably better than any official adaptation, particularly in the sequence exploring the alien planet and derelict spaceship.

Coincidentally, O’Bannon had already been trying to adapt Lovecraft’s novella, and he brought many of his ideas to the script. “My script is relatively different from the film,” said Friedman. “I set up the main character as a psychiatrist examining Ward. The thrust was how the case affects this psychiatrist. He’s coming from a scientific background, thinking there’s a rational explanation, and takes on a case which makes him rethink everything he believes. After finding out there’s a supernatural explanation, he ends up going slightly crazy.

“When O’Bannon came onto the project, he had been trying to write a script from the same material, and he felt that he had never cracked the third act. He read my script and said, You’ve solved a lot of the problems, but the way I’d always had it in my mind was the main character’s a detective.’ If he was going to get involved with the project-which everyone was very keen on-he wanted to tell the story his way. Everyone was skeptical at first, because my script was getting good response. O’Bannon wrote out a 15-page treatment to show how you could integrate parts of my script with what his idea was.

Rejected Creature Design

“I can’t even tell you what a thrill it was to find out he was involved with the project.” Friedman enthuses. “In just the past six months that I’ve been working with him. I’ve probably learned more about writing than in the previous 26 years of my existence. It’s almost as if, until that point. I was just winging it.”

“Dan’s thinking was this story naturally lends itself to a detective because there are so many clues to be discovered. It looked good on paper, but the execution was a lot trickier than he had made it seem. The toughest thing was to keep the detective not only intellectually involved, but emotionally involved. Dan’s idea was to involve him, a la CHINATOWN, with the wife—which works on a certain level but on another level becomes distracting.”

The change in lead characters resulted in a change of title as well. “The word ‘shatterbrain’ is actually a Middle English term for crazy,” explained Friedman. “It was more relevant in my original script, because the psychiatrist came unglued. It does sound a little like a B-movie, but at the same time it evokes a certain image, so it was appropriate. I pushed for it long into post-production-people got very bored with my suggesting it. THE RESURRECTED, to me, gives too much away. Once you meet the three main characters -well, one of them’s been resurrected, and it’s not too hard to figure out which one!”

PRE-PRODUCTION Devising a photographic look that would capture Lovecraft’s tone fell to cinematographer Irv Goodnoff, who went through an interesting audition process for his director. “There was one other director of photography interested,” said Goodnoff, “so Dan gave us an assignment to bring in what we thought our interpretation of the script would be.

I went back and studied a number of painters that had the flavor of what H.P. Lovecraft felt like, expressionistically speaking. I brought in 30 books, marked out with the pictures I liked. About a week later, I got a phone call saying Dan wanted me.”

Pre-production lasted from June to October 1990, followed by seven weeks of principal photography in Vancouver, Canada, which doubled for Lovecraft’s beloved Providence, Rhode Island. The Bridge Studios, which cover almost 50,000 square feet, provided ample space for the construction of a labyrinth of tunnels where dwell the ghastly results of Curwen’s experiments.

“It’s a contemporary piece, but there’s also the 18th century and the whole world of the catacombs, so, in essence, the picture has three looks,” explained Goodnoff. “We used two different film stocks: Kodak for most of it, and Agfa for the period scene. The Agfa has a more creamy pastel look; the Kodak is much higher contrast with a denser black.

I try to create a flavor and a feeling. Sometimes, a third of the screen is black, and there are shafts of light. When you’re doing horror, you don’t show everything. Dan O’Bannon told me, “You set an expectation for the audience. Then you make them wait, and you make them wait, and you make them wait. When you finally suggest that they see something, they’re going to be scared.’ That was basically our approach.

“It was the most difficult job I’ve ever had to do. The scheduling should have been nine weeks, but we only had seven. We wrapped principal photography just before Christmas. It was one of those deadline days. The plug was being pulled at midnight. I’ve been on a couple of pictures like that: because of bonds people, financial and contractual things, one minute over 12 means you’ve blown it. Those bottom-line people have no grace in a lot of cases. We had three different units going. I was running from one to the other, checking, then shooting my own unit. It was a 14-hour marathon.”

Sarandon with O’Bannon

“Charles Ward is basically a well-intentioned, good man who is led astray by a desire to conquer this great scientific problem that his ancestor has posed. It’s kind of a parallel to Frankenstein: a good man who is consumed with something that he shouldn’t be messing with. The big theme here is basically “Don’t screw with death.”  – Chris Sarandon

SPECIAL EFFECTS The premise of the story is best summed up by a passage Lovecraft quotes from the alchemist Borellus: “… from the essential Saltes of humane Dust, a philosopher may … call up the shape of any dead Ancestour from the Dust where into his Bodie has been incinerated.” Typically, Lovecraft refers to the results, when not all the “essential Saltes” have been gathered, simply as the “livliest awfulness” without ever describing them in detail.

Such restraint doesn’t work on the movie screen, according to Friedman. “He didn’t really show you a lot,” said Friedman of Lovecraft. “In a book that’s almost scarier, because the reader uses his imagination to fill in the blanks. In a film you can’t just keep talking. Ata certain point you have to deliver the goods. The way the script plays is you get up to the point where he left off and then you have to start creating on your own.”

Coming up with specific designs for Lovecraft’s livliest awfulness fell to Masters, who took his initial inspiration from Friedman’s script. “There were incredibly bizarre descriptions which I had a lot of fun interpreting,” said Masters. “When it finally came to materializing these, O’Bannon would show me books of paintings by Francis Bacon, who I’ve always been a fan of. He would express himself in these imageries, these strange concoctions of paint and color and light rather than form and shape. Dan really got into talking about the character rather than the form, so it was an interesting challenge to come up with a design. What we tried to do is take the human form as groundwork and completely distort a certain aspect of itas long as there’s something the audience can grasp, it’s quite frightening. We designed about 30 monsters; in the film there are about five. I’ve still got reams of designs that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to use for anything else because they’re so weird.

The effects unit during principal photography was directed by supervisor Todd Masters because O’Bannon was on a tight schedule. “Dan would take a sequence all the way up to where the effects jumped in, and he would finish off a sequence,” said Masters. “He would leave us the middle. My crew worked nights, mainly for sound reasons we didn’t want to cause troubles with the other unit. We had to match a similar camera style. Things marry very nicely.”

“We’ve done more tricks on this film than on any other I’ve ever worked on,” said Masters. “We have monster suits, remote-control animatronic characters, puppet heads, stop motion, and pneumatics. We had a set of prosthetics on Chris Sarandon for a good portion of the end of the film. You can’t tell he’s wearing anything—they match his face-until we turn on the lights. It’s networked with fiber optics, so it gives the illusion that his veins are glowing when he comes to his climactic end.”

“For most of the monsters, I was given a long leash,” Masters explains. “O’Bannon started coming down with quite a strict design on one creature that I called the ‘Darwin monster,’ which in one of the early drafts of the script was actually supposed to be Darwin resurrected. As the script developed, that monster kind of got pulled all over the place. Some of the earlier maquettes had some really wild designs, but O’Bannon finally just said, “Well, you know, what I really want to see in this movie, which we haven’t done yet, is a half-skeletal body-being that these are supposed to be resurrected corpses with its other half this kind of swollen, amorphous, elephantitis looking guy.’

“I was never too excited about that,” Masters admits, “just because I always thought it was more interesting when [the Charles Dexter Ward character] made these mistakes out of these corpses’ ashes–they didn’t always come together in the right place, and would elongate and do strange things. Dan wanted something that was a little stricter, closer to human, so he actually sat down and pencilled out this sketch which would eventually become this monster, and I did a maquette and a variety of sketches to hone in on what he was trying to get.

“It’s a pretty neat monster,” Masters concedes, “but it’s not my favorite in the film, because to me it’s too much of a solid substance. Many of the other ones are so disturbing and so amorphous that it’s difficult to put your finger on exactly what every piece is.”

I though there are a number of creatures in The Resurrected, Masters points out that there isn’t an overabundance of gore for gore’s sake-although there are some healthy sprayings of blood.

“That’s one thing that Chris Sarandon and I were really trying to steer away from,” he clarifies. “I’ve never been a fan of gore, and I don’t really care for splattering walls with blood even though I did splatter two sets with blood for this film. Actually, one day I flew in from LA, got off the airplane, and Dan came up to me and said, ‘Do you have a lotta blood?’ I said, “Well…yeah.’ And he says, ‘Well, do you have lots of blood?’ It’s like, ‘I don’t know.

Extensive visual effects, supervised by Todd Masters in post-production, helped the ambitious nature of screenwriter Brent Friedman’s evocation of the horror of Lovecraft. Though many of the effects in Friedman’s script were deemed too expensive, Masters-originally hired to produce makeup and physical effects-sought to find a way to retain them, working closely with production designer Brent Thomas.

“Thomas really pulled rabbits out of his hat,” said Masters. “He loved the project from day one. He and I would get together after office hours at the studio and sit down in the hotel bar to concoct ideas. That’s how the movie turned into such a crazy fiasco. We thought the whole idea of Brent Friedman’s script was so bizarre and wonderful that we kept wanting to play.

“Every time something was pulled away from us, because there wasn’t money for this monster or that set, Brent Thomas and I would figure a way to put it back in. We didn’t want a film that has small production value. Horror films deserve all the scope and scale they can get.”

The horror that was to be resurrected by detective John Terry early on in Curwen’s laboratory got axed so Masters’ effects unit could afford to rent a studio to work in. As a low-cost stop-gap director Dan O’Bannon suggested that Terry resurrect just two fingers, “a goofy idea,” said Masters, who came up with a believable, low-budget finger monster concept instead. “We had to keep fingers in it,” said Masters, “so we turned this thing into almost a crab monster with fingers, an eyeball, and some external organs.”

After principal photography wrapped, Masters and producers Mark Borde and Kevin Raich viewed a rough assembly to determine what effects were still needed. What was originally intended to be a few weeks of rotoscoping expanded to six months, four shooting miniatures and another two adding opticals. “The producers really wanted it to be an effects-filled film,” said Masters. “We made sure that we kept the budget down. I’ve coordinated a lot of visual effects in the past. Since our eyes were looking through the camera, and our eyes only, we cheated to hide all the expensive stuff just inches out of frame.”

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One amusing episode involved a four-foot-high balsa wood miniature of Curwen’s mansion, rigged to explode. “This was part of Ted Rae’s unit—he did two miniature shots in the film,” said Masters. “We had it set up in Ted’s parking lot, waiting for nightfall. As I was painting part of the chimney, I heard these little cracks in the structure. As I was ready with the final dab of paint, a big gust of wind came and blew the whole thing down! What a nightmare! Ted and I jumped underneath the house and tried to hold it up, but we ended up having to recreate the whole building in a day and blow it up the following night.

“Everybody that worked on this film put their blood into it,” Masters summed up. “It turned into a labor of love for a lot of us-which I know sounds cliched, but everyone was really pulling for it, and it shows in the film.”

The extensive post-production schedule turned out to be a hindrance for composer Richard Band. “They made about eight edits the night before my recording session,” said Band. “That’s a composer’s nightmare, but all too common these days.” Band came up with a synthesizer score that boasted a full orchestral sound. “To have done this score with an orchestra would have cost $400,000,” said Band. “The producers have resigned themselves to a synthesizer score.”

Summed up Friedman, “I think we retained more Lovecraft than any other adaptation I’ve seen. We didn’t just use the concepts as springboards for our own story. In fact, there’s one scene lifted word-for-word, dialogue-wise, involving the first time you see Curwen posing as Ward, and he’s talking this strange 18th century speak. So there’s some place where Lovecraft is completely intact, and there are others where liberties were taken. It’s not as grossly amusing as REANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND. It takes a much more serious, Gothic slant. In the end, I wish we could have made my original script, but I’m still happy we made something.”

CAST/CREW Directed Dan O’Bannon

Produced Mark Borde Kenneth Raich

Written Brent V. Friedman

John Terry as John March Jane Sibbett as Claire Ward Chris Sarandon as Charles Dexter Ward/Joseph Curwen Robert Romanus as Lonnie Peck Charles K. Pitts as Ezra Ward Megan Leitch as Eliza Lauren Briscoe as Holly Tender

Special Effects by Jason Barnett    … prosthetic effects David P. Barton  … prosthetic department head (as David Barton) Julie Beuscher   … prosthetic effects Bryan Blair  … prosthetic effects Evan Brainard    … prosthetic effects Kevin Brennan    … prosthetic effects Jeffrey Butterworth  … first assistant special physical effects (as Jeff Butterworth) Scott Coulter    … prosthetic department head: Todd Masters Company, Inc. (as John Scott Coulter) Bernhard Eichholz … prosthetic effects (as Bernie Eichholtz) Earl Ellis   … prosthetic effects: Todd Masters Company, Inc. Kevin Flemming   … special effects photography Thomas Floutz    … key effects makeup artist (as Thom Floutz) Mark Garbarino   … prosthetic department head Karin Hanson … prosthetic effects Marty Huculiak   … special effects assistant Timothy Huizing  … prosthetic effects (as Tim Huizing) Gil Liberto  … prosthetic effects (as Gilbert Liberdo) Geoff Martin … special effects key grip Todd Masters … special effects unit director Mike McDonald    … special effects gaffer (as Michael McDonald) Kevin O’Leary    … special effects assistant Gary Paller  … special physical effects coordinator Dennis Petersen  … special effects assistant Tom Price    … special effects assistant (as Thomas E. Price) Jonas Quastel    … special effects first assistant camera Robert Sheridan  … special effects assistant Mark Sisson  … prosthetic effects James Slavin … prosthetic effects (as Jim Slavin) Chris Spouler    … special effects assistant Candace Van Woerkom  … prosthetic effects Andrew Vincent   … special effects lamp operator Scott Wheeler    … prosthetic effects Shawn Wilson … special effects assistant Andre Bustanoby  … prosthetic effects (uncredited)Visual Effects by Bret Alexander   … visual effects miniatures Jim Aupperle … visual effects director of photography Asao Goto    … visual effects miniatures Dave Gregory … optical effects supervisor Todd Masters … special visual effects Jeff Pyle    … visual effects miniatures Ted Rae  … additional miniature / visual effects director of photography Marc Tyler   … visual effects miniatures David Williams   … additional optical camera: Illusion Arts (as Dave Williams)

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Cinefantastique v22n06 Fangoria#106 Fangoria#112 Gorezone#22

The Resurrected (1991) Retrospective SUMMARY Claire Ward hires private investigator John March to look into the increasingly bizarre activities of her husband Charles Dexter Ward, an esteemed Rhode Island chemical engineer.

[xeford2020]

McKinley Thompson, Jr.: Designer, Maker, Aspiring Entrepreneur

As part of the William Davidson Foundation Initiative for Entrepreneurship, we have had the opportunity to explore a number of fascinating stories of entrepreneurs represented in our collections. Recently, we’ve examined the life and work of aspiring entrepreneur and automobile designer McKinley Thompson, Jr. While working for Ford Motor Company, Thompson conceived of an idea for an all-terrain vehicle that would do for Third World countries what the Model T did for America. This post highlights Thompson’s life and career as the first African-American automobile designer and sheds light on his little-known project for a vehicle ahead of its time, dubbed the Warrior. Finding His Passion On an October afternoon in 1934, 12-year-old McKinley Thompson, Jr., was stopped in his tracks while walking home from school. The reason? He had spotted a brand-new silver DeSoto Airflow, the first silver-colored and streamlined vehicle he had ever seen. In an interview from 2001, Thompson recalled that “the clouds opened up for the sunshine to come through… It lit that car up like a searchlight.” Awestruck by the unique design of the car, it was right then and there that Thompson knew what he wanted to be when he grew up: an automobile designer.

McKinley Thompson, Jr., undated (Photograph Courtesy of McKinley Thompson, Jr.) In his youth, Thompson showed promise in drawing and was particularly interested in futuristic themes. He participated in commercial art courses throughout high school and, upon graduation in 1940, completed drafting courses where he learned to plan projects and present his ideas through drawings and concept illustrations. With these skills, Thompson acquired his first job as a draftsman with the National Youth Administration. He then worked as an engineering design layout coordinator for the Army Signal Corps until he was drafted to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Following the war, he continued working for the Signal Corps until 1953, when he found an opportunity to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an automobile designer.  Seizing the Opportunity

“Do you want to be an Automotive Designer” contest article from Motor Trend magazine, March 1953 THF299257

In March of 1953, Motor Trend magazine sponsored an Automotive and Industrial Design contest with the goal of discovering talented young adults. The prize? One of five, four-year tuition-free scholarships to the prestigious Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles – one of the most respected schools for industrial design. Contest entry required several drawings and sketches, photographs, or models of cars and other products, along with an essay responding to the prompt, “What I think the trend in automotive design will be in the next ten years.” For McKinley Thompson, this was the chance of a lifetime – and he won.

Motor Trend magazine’s winning contest entries, September 1953 THF299267

McKinley Thompson’s winning entry in the article, “From Dream to Drawing Board to…?” in Motor Trend magazine, September 1953. In his essay, Thompson wrote that cars of the future would sacrifice aerodynamics to accommodate “more functional roominess and reduced size.” THF299268

Thompson’s gas turbine car, which incorporated reinforced plastic (an unusual choice of material at the time), won him the top prize. Thompson became the first African American to attend the Art Center, where he excelled throughout his course of study. After graduation, Thompson was offered a job with Ford Motor Company in the Advanced Styling Studio, finally realizing his childhood dream and breaking a barrier by becoming the first African-American automobile designer.

In the Advanced Styling Studio, designers were given a great deal of creative freedom. This suited Thompson’s interest in futuristic themes, allowing him to contribute sketches for fantastical ideas, such as a flying car and a nuclear-powered multi-trailered truck. He also worked on the Allegro and Gyron concept cars and collaborated on design ideas for the production Mustang and Bronco.

1961 Ford Gyron  THF299432 The Warrior While Thompson’s career at Ford gave him the opportunity to work on a variety of vehicles and concepts that could change the automotive industry, his most innovative idea had the potential to change the world. Thompson envisioned an all-terrain vehicle for Third World countries that would be easy to build and maintain, with low production costs. But his vision extended beyond the vehicle, which he dubbed the Warrior. He anticipated auto plants – located in the developing nations that would use the car – bringing jobs, better roads, and eventual economic independence to the host countries. Much like how the Model T brought America into the modern age and stimulated the economy through accessible and affordable mobility, Thompson believed the Warrior could do the same for Third World nations. His program was called “Project Vanguard.” The plan was to use Uniroyal plastic components – known as Royalex – because they were lightweight, durable, and relatively cost-efficient. The first phase of the plan involved building a facility where Royalex could be fabricated for use on the Warrior and other assets. The second phase would involve the building of the vehicle division (to encompass the Warrior and other future vehicles), followed by a marine division for constructing boats, and a container division where “habitat modules” would be fabricated for housing. Though Ford Motor Company was supportive when Thompson first brought his idea to the company in 1965, Ford ultimately passed on the project in 1967, believing that the vehicle would not sell in large enough quantities to warrant the investment. 

1974 Warrior Concept Car  THF92162 Despite this setback, Thompson still believed that his vehicle could succeed. He thought that if he produced a prototype car and could demonstrate the possibilities of this unique application of Royalex, he could garner interest for investment in the program. He gathered several friends to help in financing the Warrior prototype, including Wally Triplett – the first African American to play in the National Football League (for the Detroit Lions). By day, McKinley Thompson drafted concept drawings for Ford, but by night he worked tirelessly to bring his Warrior to life in a rented garage on Detroit’s west side.

McKinley Thompson and Crew Testing the Warrior Concept Car, 1969. Click here to check out other images of the Warrior from a scrapbook compiled by Wally Triplett!  THF113754

Once his prototype was complete, Thompson and his partners attempted to market it to other investors and groups. They reached out to the Small Business Administration, which turned them down because the endeavor would take place outside the United States. They tried to gain assistance from the Agency for International Development but received little interest. A group of people at Chrysler, who assisted small businesses in getting started, suggested to Thompson that he first establish a market for Royalex in the United States. Plastic-bodied vehicles were still an unusual concept, and American automakers at the time were only experimenting with the idea on a limited scale. Thompson realized he was caught in a classic catch-22: He needed a Royalex facility to establish a market for plastic-bodied vehicles, but he couldn’t get the facility built without an existing market for plastic-bodied vehicles.

Instability on the African continent derailed opportunities to conduct business with the nations themselves. Thompson even tried to secure a bank loan to build Warrior cars in Detroit, but he was ultimately denied in this attempt as well. (Triplett later recounted that he felt that race played a role.) While every potential investor he approached told him it was a good idea, Thompson simply was unable to secure the funding needed to pursue his idea, eventually causing him to shut down the project in 1979.

Image from a 1965 Royalex sales brochure, showing the possibilities of an amphibious vehicle using Royalex materials. Interestingly, the Warrior was designed to be an all-terrain vehicle – including use for crossing rivers and small inland lakes! Click here to check out the rest of this brochure in which Uniroyal has suggested other uses for Royalex. THF290896

An Inspiring Career Around the same time that the doors were closing on the Warrior, Thompson developed another way to influence and change people’s lives. He coordinated a traveling exhibit, featuring the work of other African-American automobile designers, to motivate and encourage young people toward careers in design. Thompson traveled across the country, staging his exhibit in schools and shopping centers.

Photograph from the Ford Motor Company publication, “Rouge News,” March 19, 1962 THF299429

McKinley Thompson had an impressive 28-year career with Ford. In 1962 he was awarded Ford’s highest honor for community service, the Citizen of the Year Award. He contributed to a variety of projects (including experimental concept cars), worked in the Thunderbird and Falcon design studios, and eventually oversaw 50 craftspeople and modelers before retiring in 1984.

Despite his career success, Thompson continued to regret that his Warrior vehicle and overall program never materialized – though he was proud of his accomplishment in building the Warrior and proving it’s basic feasibility. The Warrior project was ahead of its time in design and philosophy. The extensive use of plastic, so common today, was revolutionary at the time. Mr. Thompson’s larger economic prophecy was partially fulfilled in 1995 when Ewert Smith’s URI, an all-terrain vehicle designed for African topography, was manufactured in the small town of Witvlei, Namibia. The URI plant became Witvlei’s largest employer, providing economic stability to the area.

Even though the Warrior never made it to market, Thompson kept the car as a leisure vehicle, taking it on family vacations and occasionally using it to run errands – usually attracting a fair amount of attention. Thompson donated his prototype to The Henry Ford in 2001.

McKinley Thompson, Jr., passed away at the age of 83, after battling Parkinson’s disease, in 2006. Samantha Johnson is Project Curator for the William Davidson Foundation Initiative for Entrepreneurship at The Henry Ford. This post expands upon Bart Bealmear’s “The Warrior,” blog post from February 2014. Special thanks to Matt Anderson, Curator of Transportation, for his help in reviewing the content.

#1 Ford Daily | Đại lý – Showroom ủy quyền Ford Việt Nam 2019 Ford Daily là showroom, đại lý Ford lớn nhất Việt Nam: Chuyên phân phối xe ô tô FORD như: EcoSport ✅ Everest ✅ Explorer ✅ Focus ✅ Ranger… info@forddaily.com 6A Đường Trần Hưng Đạo, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh 711240 0901333373 https://forddaily.com/ https://forddaily.com/xe/ https://forddaily.com/dai-ly/ https://forddaily.com/bang-gia/ https://forddaily.com/tra-gop/ #forddaily #dailyfordhcm #fordshowroomhcm https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ford+Daily/@10.7693359,106.696211,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x1f188a05d927f4ff!8m2!3d10.7693359!4d106.696211

[gogularaajan]

VIRUS MAIRUS

7 mins 40 seconds directed by Gogularaajan written by Shanjhey Kumar Perumal and Gogularaajan dop by Kumanavannan

Short Synopsis : 

When Neelakandan needs a drink, he will get it no matter what. The short film follows his struggle of trying to score some alcohol amidst the MCO in Malaysia due to the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 virus.

PROCESS :

1. THE BIRTH

We were hunting ideas for the #KumanPicturesChallenge and on 30th March 2020, Shanjhey came up with an idea in our “Sarang Naga” Whatsapp group. He showed us a picture and asked us to guess what the story would be. 

Picture 1 : Whatsapp conversation of Shanjhey, Palani and Gogu.

It’s a story about an alcoholic middle-aged man and his fearful, impulsive journey in search of alcohol, leading him to lose his mind and resort to drinking Dettol. Once we have this, Shanjhey did efficient writing that contains all the important details and structure of the story. This served as a strong base for us to write the screenplay..

Picture 2 : Draft written by Shanjhey. I went on with my ugly scribblings on it.

2. THE WRITING

At first, though I liked the idea, I could not connect myself to the story, it took some time for me to finally personalize this idea. A lot of questions hunted my mind: is it necessary to celebrate the life of an alcoholic? what is the urgency? how well do I know this man? will this be a representation?

My energy was almost drained of all these questions, and at the right time, my friend Shoban (a director himself) came to rescue. Shanjhey shared with him our idea, and Shoban instantly loved it. Shoban stressed that this is a story that should be told. That’s when we realized, that the story has its own spark and purpose, and we shall give it a shot. His words started my engine back.

#Philosophy : I tried to make sense of the story. And also draw its relation to suit the Challenge’s criteria which is horror :

what is horror? it might differ from person to person. but to me, it is basically fear. and fear is not just limited to ghosts or supernatural elements. Fear is broad and has many ways to manifest itself. In real life, there are much worse horrors happening, day to day. this story is also such horror, which is way too common in Malaysian Indian's lives. a man who is willing to do whatever to get his bottle of beer might sound too absurd and unreal to some, but it is, in fact, a very common reality for Malaysian Indians. This is in our blood, ingrained, customized for years. This is how we have been enslaved for years by different powers. when we were in the plantations, they gave us alcohol to calm us down and stray us from our real problems. a quick fix that can melt down our need to revolt or claim our rights. and this condition still persists until today, just that it has taken different forms.

this is my fear reflecting on the society, and also the character (Neelakandan’s) fear of not being able to control his spiking impulsive desire.  i think the most horrific thing that can happen to oneself is when one loses control of himself, or worst when something is taking control of his consciousness. 

I also intentionally wanted to stay outside, at the commentary viewpoint, and not indulge. I wanted a comical portrayal of this story. The story itself carried a very absurd, comical value so I didn't want to mess with it. This allowed me to create displaced emotions, where horror which exists in reality, feels humor.

most importantly, i never wanted to have a moralistic comment/statement. i just want to present the characters and events. i tried my best not to judge the character, Neelakandan. I treated him with compassion.

Picture 3 : Deriving key points of the story to serve as a direction.

After soaking my mind in this idea for about a week, I finally sat to do the screenplay. In fact, I started it quite late, so we didn’t have much time to do many drafts. Initially, Mr.Shanjhey envisioned the movie to be around 2-3 minutes long in duration, but as I was writing, I thought that it will be interesting to follow the character through few more events that can push him to decide for himself. To be honest, the writing was simplistic, I intentionally left some spaces for improvisation during the shoot.

This is the link to our final script used during our shoot : https://issuu.com/gogularaajanrajendran/docs/jpg2pdf

3. THE PRODUCTION

There are no actors. It came down to me to act, damn, I am really a lousy actor. So we tried to ask my dad if he could play this role as he fits the look quite well, better than me. I thought he is never going to accept it because he is quite an important figure in the Malaysian Tamil Literature scene and he has an image to protect. But to my surprise, he said Yes without thinking much.

Picture 4 : First look test.

For the DOP, I asked my brother, Kuma to take care of it. This was his first time, but I have nothing to complain, his work was neat. So it happened to be quite a comfortable team to work with.

Since I'm dealing with a non-actor, I've used certain methods to drive the character into the actor. On the first day of the shoot, Dad and myself sat in my darkroom. I guided him to breath, in and out, as he settles down into a relaxed state, I brought Neelakandan to him, we asked the character’s permission and seek for his help in filming. I love to do this kind of rituals, it really builds our faith in the story and character. It also gives a certain sacred vibe. I love its purity.

Apart from meditation, I used another important technique which is breathing. I have identified precisely, the breathing pattern that the character goes through in each scene and action, and through guiding the actor with the same breathing pattern, it enables him to realize the character from a deeper reality. 

Picture 5 : Im pouring F&N Zappel to the glass faking it as Dettol.

Another thing that I’ve done to get decent acting is, we shot this short film really slowly, one scene per day. Really comfortably, because I didn't want to exhaust my dad. We would shoot 3-4 hours per day for 5 days continuously. And by the end of each day, I would edit the footage.

One very valuable lesson that I have acquired is that it doesn't matter if your actor is a good performer or not, if he is attentive and has surrendered himself to the craft, you can mine the talent.  My dad is, in fact, a non-alcoholic (anti-alcoholic even). My grandfather was an alcoholic himself and my dad has witnessed how alcohol can ruin a man’s life. Fortunately, my dad has observed how a true alcoholic would behave and think, close enough. I requested him to draw inspirations from there, and channel it through the way he behaves, looks, and walks. I also collected some interesting videos from the internet (testimonies of alcoholics in India) and let him indulge in the way they exist. 

3. THE POST

Editing this movie was fairly easy, I had a strong vision of its rhythm and flow. The only scene I had quite some trouble was the one in the lift. I almost gave up, I even questioned myself, why am I even doing this. I again, realized that I’m not a gifted editor, editing really drains my soul. But the reality is, every editing project (no matter how simple it is) will push you into a deep dark realm. It is a terrible place to be in, but then, it is just the process. If we keep on, we will survive.

Picture 6 : Final Timeline of the movie.

I did the editing in quite a rush. I suppose to collaborate with my friend Neroshen on the sound design, but I didn't have the time to send the files over. I end up making the sound myself with my limited resources. The first draft of this film was about 9 minutes, where I intentionally made the last sequence of Neelakandan drinking Dettol longer. I had him to light the candle, kissing the bottle, and glass. It was like a grand celebration after a tiring journey. However, we had to take it out since it was affecting the runtime. In the beginning, I was reluctant to cut it off, but Mr.Shanjhey made me realize that it is better off. In fact the mood was not affected in the end.

Time's running out for submission. Laavanya (sister) and Senthu helped me with the subtitles in the very last minute. Very grateful that we could submit the movie for the competition, I thought that we wont make it.

AFTER THOUGHTS :

Mr.Shanjhey and myself, we are really glad that we took part in this challenge (felt more like a festival! 200+ films submitted!). We don’t really celebrate films enough in Malaysia, and I love Kuman Pictures for that, they really make it a point to celebrate films. This motivates us to practice filmmaking more, because that’s the only way to mastery.

After the selection week, we got to know that our film is shortlisted. Woohoo!

Link to playlist of shortlisted films :  https://www.youtube.com/playlist…

We shared the movie with friends and families and received warm comments. One of the responses that really touches me is from the Five Flavours Film Festival (Poland) when they made a write up about our short film, and shares how they too, feel connected with the character and story, though they are miles away.

Link to the write up : https://www.piecsmakow.pl/aktualnosc.do?id=430&fbclid=IwAR2F1BfMG0W6l8MZ4tTfprfU8zf4RG8EzCGCttP0gQgwI-5scpDjktXVwAU

One weird coincident that hit us, weeks after the making this shortfilm is Donald Trump’s statement on ingesting Dettol to kill the virus. Art becomes life, there you go. Neelakandan is validated by Trump.

And on the 28th of April, Kuman announced that our short film has been selected as the winner for the challenge.

Some lovely articles and responses for shortfilm from online media : 

1. Trootz made a detailed write-up :

https://trootz.wordpress.com/2020/04/30/virus-mairus-no-virus-can-stop-a-man-seeking-gratification/

2. FatBidin Film Club reacted to the movie :

https://youtu.be/FYarPgjRerE

3.  OhSnap Tv made a cool coverage on their website :

https://www.ohsnap.tv/2020/04/30/spotlight-gogularaajan/

4. CinemaOnline made a write-up :

 http://www.cinema.com.my/bm/articles/news_details.aspx?search=2020.n_virusmairusdiangkat_54619&fbclid=IwAR0STOOLByd7K7o5xUUp3NHd3lSINioJ0xbab-QUYY42xZe2mwJzrr2SBvA

5. Thoughts on Films wrote an impressive review : 

https://thoughtsonfilms.com/2020/05/09/virus-mairus-review/

[kamounlab]

Ten things we learned in 2010-2019 (aside from everything else)

He who has studied himself is his own master. –Sri Lankan proverb.

By the time this gets posted, you’ll probably be sick and tired of all those retrospective articles looking back at the 2010-2019 decade. I feel your pain. But hey, we’re still early in the new decade and I have a good reason for writing this. This last decade has been such an exhilarating period of exploration and discovery for me, my team and my collaborators that I just can’t resist the urge to write this post. The decade took us through unexpected research paths that I would have never imagined ten years ago. As I’m drafting these words during my holidays break in Sri Lanka—in between tasting the local milk rice curries and soaking the soft Indian ocean December sunshine—I’m reflecting on the local proverb above and I’m using it as my lame excuse to offer you yet another list of decadal achievements.

Please note that this is my personal highly biased perspective on ten things we have learned in 2010-2019. This list is by no means meant to be comprehensive review of advances in our research field but rather a reflection of my own personal take on the scientific topics we investigate.

2010. Two-speed genomes, everywhere? What started as a loose metaphor inspired from economics went sort of viral at some point in this decade, sometimes to comical effects (one speed genome anyone?). To those who struggle with metaphors, the idea is that there is an uneven distribution in the rates of gene evolution across the genome, not that there are precisely two-rates of gene evolution. The term actually dates back to 2009 press releases associated with the Haas et al. paper on the genome of Phytophthora infestans. We noted at the time that it was a catchy term that does illustrate the point we were making, and I really liked the French translation into the poetic “génome à deux vitesses”. By 2010, we were confident enough that we formally used the term in the Raffaele et al. paper on genome evolution after host jumps. What was even more exciting about the “two-speed genome” concept is that it turned out to apply not just to Phytophthora genomes but also to many other plant pathogens. Ten years later, we start the new decade with a paper on the two-speed genome architecture of the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae.

2011. WY fold—commonalities amid diversity. Our collaboration with Mark Banfield started yielding its fruits with the 2011 Boutemy et al. paper. This and related papers by the Staskawicz and Shirasu Labs in the US and Japan, respectively, marked the discovery of the WY-fold of oomycete effectors. This has now expanded into the LWY-foldand an effector of the tobacco blue mold pathogen Peronospora tabacina has 18 WY units. The finding that pathogen effectors share structural features despite limited primary sequence similarity has also extended to other filamentous pathogens, for example the MAX-fold of M. oryzae effectors. This is very useful because it improves prediction of effector genes from pathogen genomes and sets the stage for effectoromics.

2011. The haustorial interface—where it all happens? I’m a big fan of this Bozkurt et al. paper because it was very challenging for me to get outside my comfort zone into the murky world of plant cell biology (where many people seem reluctant to quantify their observations…). Kudos to Tolga Bozkurt and Sebastian Schornack for leading the way and taking me through this journey. As often, the effectors gave us the first clue and the discovery that some P. infestans effectors accumulate at the haustorial interface (perihaustorial) turned out to be a starting point for many cool projects. Thanks in part to a nudge from an anonymous reviewer who was dissing the novelty of studying effectors that suppress PAMP-triggered immunity (the “it has all been done with Pseudomonas syringae” type of reviewer), we decided to focus on perihaustorial effectors. This resulted, in many important findings, notably the discovery of the ATG8-binding effector PexRD54 and that the host autophagy machinery is diverted to the haustorial interface during infection by P. infestans. This also led us to study plant ATG8 proteins and how they have specialized throughout evolution.

2013. Genome editing made easy. Ten years ago, geneticists were dreaming about gene editing. What if there was a tool that would allow facile gene editing. TALENs popped up first in 2009 but, in our hands, applying them turned out to be anything but simple. Vlad Nekrasov noted that the AvrBs3 backbone of standard TALEN constructs wouldn’t generate transgenic tomatoes because they elicit Bs4-mediated cell death. That frustration was one motivation in early 2013 to ditch the TALEN work and focus on the newly reported CRISP/Cas9 system. That was a wise decision and Vlad got CRISPR/Cas9 to work in what seemed like weeks. The rest is history with Vlad’s CRISPR/Cas9 plasmids have been distributed >500 times via Addgene. Vlad, in collaboration with Detlef Weigel’s lab, went on to engineer the transgene-free powdery mildew resistant mutant Tomelo in less than a year. This work ended up being highlighted by the BBC as one of “four good things that happened in 2016″.

2013. Field pathogenomics—just sequence it! It was the ash dieback outbreak that gave us our first opportunity to combine sequencing of field collected tissue with open science and crowdsourcing to mount a rapid response to plant health emergencies. Back then it did feel like plant pathology was lagging behind in immediately applying genome sequencing to emerging plant pathogens. Diane Saunders, Kentaro Yoshida and Dan MacLean managed to put OpenAshDieback together and release a draft of the pathogen’s genome just weeks after the outbreak was detected in Norfolk. Diane then applied the approach to yellow rusts and we later used field pathogenomics to identify the origin of the pathogen that caused the 2016 wheat blast outbreak in Bangladesh. That project kicked off a very inspiring collaboration with Tofazzal Islam and Nick Talbot and further strengthened my dedication to advocate for open science. It also changed the research direction of my lab, especially after the BLASTOFF project was funded by the ERC.

2013. Going back to the past to better prepare for the future. It’s not every day that you get lampooned by the Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert was correct, it wasn’t the 1b haplotype of P. infestans that triggered the Irish famine disaster, it was HERB-1. Our collaboration with Hernan Burbano, Detlef Weigel and several others on sequencing P. infestans genomes from 19th century herbarium samples, received incredible media coverage. With Hernan having recently started a new position at UCL, you can expect more pathogen aDNA projects in the future. Stay tuned.

2014. Effector adaptation after jumping hosts. There are literally dozens and dozens of examples of rapid evolutionary adaptations in plant-pathogen interactions in which the precise mutation is known. It's no big deal to find a new one these days. But almost all of these are AVR effectors that overcome host resistance. What Suomeng Dong and others documented is an effector that has adapted to a new target after switching hosts. Suomeng showed that the protease inhibitor effector EPIC1 has undergone biochemical specialization on the protease of its new host. This paper builds up on work dating back to the 2000-2009 decade by PhD students Miaoying Tian who discovered the protease inhibitor effectors of Phytophthora and Jing Song who further studied the EPICs. It was also the point when we decided to center the lab around the theme of evolutionary molecular-plant microbe interactions or #EvoMPMI as it’s known on Twitter.

2015. The beauty of a protein complex structure. Stella Cesari and her colleagues deserve much credit for articulating the NLR integrated decoy concept, although some of us prefer to use the more agnostic term integrated domain (NLR-ID). I’m thrilled to have been the matchmaker who helped link up the amazing work of Ryohei Terauchi on rice blast effectors and R genes with the structural biology magic of Mark Banfield. This resulted in bringing an unprecedented level of detail to Harold Flor's gene-for-gene model with Abbas Maqbool solving the structure of M. oryzae AVR-PikD in complex with the integrated HMA domain of the rice immune receptor Pik-D. Mark and his team went on to publish a series of trail blazing follow-up papers on how to exploit this knowledge to engineer new disease resistance specificities (De la Concepcion et al. 2018, 2019; Varden et al. 2018).

2017. Do NLRs work in pairs—it’s more complicated! In what was initially a follow-up study to the AVRblb2 project of Bozkurt et al., Chih-hang Wu, Ahmed Abd-El-Haliem and Jack Vossen “accidental” discovery that NRC4 is necessary for Rpi-blb2 ended up having some very unexpected ramifications. Chih-hang’s PhD took quite a turn when he followed up on a suggestion by Khaoula Belhaj to silence multiple NRC paralogs and uveil a complicated NLR network. He went on to his most insightful discovery that the NRC network is phylogenetically structured and has expanded over 100 million years ago (Mya) from an NLR pair to a network that makes up to half of the NLRs of asterid plants. All this cool stuff ended up taking over my research program by storm, with Team NRC making up half of my lab. It also led to the fascinating research question of how NLRs have evolved from singletons to pairs to networks. Meanwhile, Chih-hang is starting his new lab at Academia Sinica in January 2020.  

2019. The coming of age of the plant resistosome. Courtesy of Jijie Chai, Jian-Min Zhou and their collaborators, 2019 brought us a full-length NLR structure some 25 years after their discovery in the early 1990s. But these landmark papers by Wang et al. (2019a, 2019b) had much more than that. They showed that they could activate the ZAR1 resistosome in vitro by flooding it with ATP. This results in the “death switch”, a conformational change that generates a funnel-shaped structure that is proposed to insert into the plasma membrane and cause cell death. Beyond this extraordinary breakthrough, we had good reasons to celebrate—as we did in this video. The ZAR1 death switch model immediately explained some two-year old results that Hiroaki Adachi and Adeline Harant had produced with our own NRC4. This led Aki to discover the functionally conserved N-terminal MADA motif of NLR proteins that defines the N-terminus of NRC4, ZAR1 and at least one fifth of CC-type NLRs. We predict that a ZAR1 type conformational “death switch” is a common activation mechanism for CC-NLRs. What a way to end the decade. IT'S A MADA, MADA, MADA, MADA WORLD!

Conclusion. Over the last decade, the research topics in my lab have drifted from a focus on Phytophthoragenome and effector biology to new interests such as M. oryzae and NLR biology. I heard that several colleagues find this puzzling. Some of the drift can be explained by a tendency to follow Peter Medawar’s maxim of “science is the art of the soluble”. Another reason is an obsession with Keplerian thinking—unexpected findings are opportunities to explore new research avenues and shouldn’t be dismissed because they don’t fit the current theory. Also, some of the projects moved on to greener pastures when postdocs took on independent positions at other institutions and it didn’t make any sense for me to continue working on those topics. This said, there is probably more to this willingness to jettison projects and switch to new ones. I should think deeper about this. After all, “he who has studied himself…”

Acknowledgements. I’m deeply grateful to past and present lab members and collaborators for their many contributions, several of which are not described here. I want to particularly thank Joe Win for his across the board involvement in pretty much most of the projects described above. Thanks also to the funders, particularly the Gatsby Charitable, BBSRC and ERC.

To cite: Kamoun, S. Ten things we learned in 2010-2019 (aside from everything else). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3613856

[jaredsinclair]

Get Your Architecture Right, Because You Always Have More Time than You Think You Do

When facing an anxiety-provoking deadline for a software project, you have more time to plan your architecture than it may seem. Indeed, you should consider near and medium term requirements and risks to the full extent that it is possible to consider them given current knowledge, even if you choose not address any of them up front. Take only calculated risks. Factor those risks carefully into your initial implementation. Do not touch a keyboard until you have done so. Cut corners, but cut them thoughtfully.

Urgency Versus Anxiety

It's worth noting the important difference between a sense of urgency and anxiety. Before I got into software development I was a registered nurse in an ICU. One evening a patient went into cardiac arrest. In an instant, the room filled with nurses and other folks eager to jump in and help. I was leaning over the patient's bed giving chest compressions to keep the patient's blood flowing. I felt myself swarmed by a small crowd in scrubs and Crocs. There were more people present than necessary, and it made the atmosphere in the room ratchet up from an appropriate urgency to a palpable anxiety. A supervising physician on the scene wisely ordered everyone not currently providing care to leave the room. As the excess folks filed out, I overheard the physician mention something to a colleague about the dangerous anxiety he was correcting:

I'll never forget something an instructor told me in med school about situations like this, "You always have more time than you think you do."

He wasn't addressing me directly, but the lesson stuck: there will never be a medical situation so dire that you literally cannot spare a moment to consider an appropriate course of action. There's no use for anxiety in the mind of a professional doing his or her duty in a crisis. March all the unnecessary anxious thoughts out of your mind and make room for a deliberate response. Give yourself permission to think. In the years since that day, I've found this lesson to be very valuable, even outside of healthcare. Strange as it may seem, I hear echoes of it in my process for sketching out architectural roadmaps for the applications I work on.

(Fr)agile

In an ideal world, agile processes are adhered to with perpetual regularity, pulsing in a cadence of small, iterative changes. In the real world, an organization that can unwaveringly adhere to an agile process is hard to come by. Customer demands, public events, and other factors create constraints that require setting a fixed ship date for a product launch. This is lethal to an agile process because there's no margin of error for iteration. You don't have the luxury of repeated revisions. You barely have time to ship your first draft. Under these conditions, the anxiety of the engineers on such a project skyrockets. Facing a tall list of requirements and a fast-approaching, narrow delivery window, there is a temptation to bust out the keyboards and hammer out some code because how will we ever finish unless we can show immediate and significant progress oh god oh god. Invariably, code written in thoughtless haste is unmaintainable or, worse, unshippable. Technical debt is accumulated at an unacceptable rate. Inappropriate patterns are chosen and implemented haphazardly.

Breaking it Down

It is difficult to break a down a set of large problems into atomic problem units which can be distributed among a team of developers and solved in parallel. In a healthy agile process, there is no single delivery date, but an ongoing process of experimentation and refinement. Impedance mismatches between the output of developers working on separate components are addressed through repeated course corrections. You fully roll out a feature only when it's ready to be. But when there's an aggressive and fixed delivery date, there's no room in the process for such refinements. Each component has to be shippable in its first iteration, and it has to immediately lock into place alongside all the other components.

Under the pressure of a looming deadline, developers may spend an inadequate amount of time considering their architectural roadmap. At worst, this leads to a code base that fails to satisfy the launch-day product requirements on time. At best, the code produced is ill-suited for the life of the product immediately after launch. There's no agile process in place to carry it through future milestones, so the cycle of fixed delivery deadlines and frantic architectural changes repeats until the product fails.

Here's a metaphor for the problem. Consider an illustrator tasked with drawing a human figure. A trained illustrator works like this:

She begins with gesture lines and primitive shapes, blocking out the pose, proportions, and perspective. Progressive levels of detail are added, guided by those initial lines and shapes, until the drawing arrives at its intended appearance. Inexperienced artists try to begin at the end, drawing body contours without the aid of any primitive elements, or they hastily jot down the gesture lines and shapes without regard for proportion and perspective. Either way the result is unsatisfactory.

Carrying the metaphor, what I have seen anxious developers do is start with the far right drawing without any gesture lines. They task team members with drawing each limb separately and at a premature level of detail. When at last the team attempts to pin the components together the perspectives don’t match, the proportions are childish, and the result is hideously unusable. The irony is that — just as a rough pass of detail over an expertly-arranged set of gesture lines can yield a pleasantly unfinished portrait — a simple overlay of features and polish atop an expertly-ordered primitive architecture is the very definition of a minimally-viable product.

There's another software development pitfall suggested by this metaphor. Accurate and pleasant gesture lines are extraordinarily difficult to master. They may look like stick figures to an untrained eye, but they're anything but. Countless hours of practice and studious observation are required to become proficient at drawing these primitive shapes. If you undertake them without care, the resulting drawing will have all the same flaws as a drawing made without any gesture lines. In the same way, an architectural roadmap must be considered with extreme care. Don't just list everything you know, list everything you don't or can't know. You don't have to plan every detail, but you must wrestle with the problem area long enough to be reasonably confident that your architecture will be both efficient in the short term and stable for the medium term. If you're lucky it will be stable for the long term. No matter what you choose, it'll always be a guess. But make it a well-educated guess.

A Concrete Example

Here’s a concrete example of the kind of discussion I think can be spared some time at the beginning of a project without making commitments that over- or under- engineer things. Consider an app backed by a web service with user-specific accounts. Questions that might come up during a planning phase:

How likely do we think it is that the app will ever need to support more than one account at a time?

If we choose not to leave space for multiple accounts in our architecture, how disruptive would it be if multiple accounts suddenly became a requirement?

How much additional up-front effort would it take to leave space for multiple accounts in our architecture though we would only ship with user-facing support for a single account?

How likely is it that we’ll have to support iOS State Restoration, and would this be impacted by our chosen account plan?

What else haven’t we considered, and is any of it risky enough to require addressing now?

And the key points during that discussion might be:

We have no idea how likely it is we’ll need to support multiple accounts. All we know is it’s not currently required.

If we think we’ll never have to support multiple accounts, one option is to provide global access to a singleton instance of an account.

If we suddenly have to support multiple accounts and we’re using a singleton instance fixed to one account, that requirement change would be very painful to support.

Passing an isolated account via dependency injection instead of providing a globally-accessible singleton instance would be comparatively easier to migrate to a multiple-account setup.

Passing an isolated account via dependency injection would have a trivial impact on overall level of effort in a single-account application.

Dependency injection could conceivably make supporting iOS State Restoration harder as that API is based on isolated view controllers re-instantiating themselves via NSCoding. Passing references to specific account instances during or after state restoration is considerably more complex than if restored view controllers had immediate access to a global instance during decoding.

Please note I’m not arguing for one way of the other here. I'm merely sketching out some terrain over which such a discussion might traverse.

Conclusion

In the end there’s always risk. You make the best choice you can given the information you have. I recommend discussing at length both the near and medium term before comitting to a near-term plan. All too often, these discussions either don’t happen or they happen in a rush and so risks aren’t considered to the full extent that it is possible to consider them given current knowledge.

That last line is the bad habit that rubs me wrong:

the risks aren’t considered to the full extent that it is possible to consider them given current knowledge.

This is the point of the quote from that ICU physician I admired so much. You always have more time than it seems like you do. You always have time to consider the impact of what you know and what you don’t, even if you choose not to address any of the risks up front, even if the outcome of that consideration means cutting huge corners. At least the risks you’re taking are calculated.

[thereallygoodblogshow]

MA Fashion and Textile Practices Major Project Path - 20th August

My final T-shirt was initially based on the concept of silence vs expression, I liked the idea of confliction between the need to be expressive and the need to be secretive. I had done some prior research into folds and pleating, and had developed a Pinterest board on concealing words/text within folds. It was the idea that as human beings there are parts of us which we wish to keep hidden and aspects of ourselves we wish to show to the world that I liked, essentially we are contradictory. I thought that using the text I had developed previously - ‘Space is the fold’ would emphasise this notion because the text could be utilised as my expressive side - the part I want people to ‘read’, but yet it discusses the fold - the part I want to keep to myself.

I didn’t want to create a T-shirt which looked like the other ones, this was meant to be a personal piece. I began to think of how, after completing this MA where I would fit in this world, deep I know, but taking this MA has been challenging in many ways and has forced me to consider what I want to do next in life. I’ve been involved in design in one form or another since I was 16 and had some really positive experiences. I love design, although my love of it has been challenged at certain points in my career, and my confidence knocked because of negative experiences.

I worked at a company in Leeds called E.B.I from October 1993 to December 2005, almost 13 years. I began as a confident designer - having just come from a company working up from design assistant to designer within 6 years - designing mainly men’s, women’s and children’s lingerie and nightwear. I loved my job and the small design team we had. It was incredibly varied work, I was involved in designing everything from the garment itself to the packaging and labelling. I was quite high pressure, we had to ensure deadlines were met and the manufacturers critical path was adhered to, often working late to make it all happen. After a few years I was promoted to senior designer - from starting out as a design room assistant on a Y.T.S training programme back in 1987 this was a big achievement for me.

It was during this time that things started to go wrong for me creatively, and our design team as a whole. This was partly due to company expansion and the way they viewed us as a creative team, and partly because they had employed a design director who was controlling and manipulative. There is no other way of putting it - we were bullied in the workplace. There are many instances I could recount here but it would be a very long introduction to my final T-shirt piece! I think on a whole we were made to feel worthless, undervalued and that the creative aspect of our jobs was the least important. The term ‘cad monkey’ was bandied about, of which the Urban Dictionary (2009) states:

‘Somebody who has gone through years of difficult and strenuous education in engineering, architecture, or a similar field only to wind up with a mindless and repetitive job where they do one task on a computer drafting program over and over again.’ 

Miragestudio7, n.d. (2019). Dilbert Cad Monkey And The Truth Of Sitting At Your Desk For 9 Hours A Day. [Illustration]. Retrieved from https://blog.miragestudio7.com/dilbert-cad-monkey/301/.

With myself in the role of senior designer I was answerable to the design director and company directors, so I took on an incredible amount of stress which I didn’t pass on to the rest of the team because it would have been unfair. I was the one being paid the most, so I took the brunt of it. In the end I was looking for a way out. My husband and I decided we needed a fresh start - from each other, but I didn’t realise that at the time - and moved, or was that escaped? to Spain. We bought a property north of Granada in a traditional Spanish town called Iznalloz.

This is our house in Spain, with my (ex) mother-in-law at the front door. 

We were relatively happy there for around a year - our initial settling-in time and getting used to our new environment, it was hard but fun. I think nobody really knows what it’s like moving to another country unless you experience it yourself. It is wonderful, yet terrifying! My husband had planned on becoming a DJ in Spain, he had a huge vinyl collection of dance music and all the equipment required, it would have been a good source of income if he had managed to get work out there. I set up a little freelance design business making greetings cards to sell to locals and customers at home, which was doing OK and kept the creative juices flowing whilst I worked out what else I wanted to do. 

Living in a country where you don’t know anybody else apart from the person you are with for 24/7 puts an incredible strain on the relationship. My husband became frustrated with the lack of work, and resentful of me managing to generate some  - albeit small - amount of income. He was nursing his own demons, suffering from depression since he fell ill with a sudden brain tumour a few years before - it had affected us both deeply. He became increasingly verbally abusive towards me and then to my friends and family - some of whom were very worried for my well-being miles away in another country. So after a visit from my mum in February 2006 I decided to leave him and Spain and move back to the UK. Unfortunately this didn’t happen until the August that year as I had to save any money we had, as well as my mum putting together some funds for me to return home. The time in-between was incredibly stressful, we lived together but had separated, it was a surreal situation but we had to make it work. 

I had lost any impetus to be creative at that point and was just counting the days and weeks until I could come home. Looking back, I think that I associated that time in my life to creativity being a bad thing. Maybe I subconsciously blamed it partly for the breakdown of my marriage, when I knew in reality it was the abuse that was the contributing factor. When I eventually got back to the UK, I lived with my mum in Lincoln and got a part-time job in BHS as a Christmas temp. In the August of 2009 I was thrilled to land a job as a senior lingerie designer at a company in called Crew 2000 in Bradford. It meant moving back up to Yorkshire, but it was the best for me and my mum to enable us to start living our lives for ourselves once again. I moved in with my best friend Mel - who I had been friends with since our days as designers for E.B.I and began this new chapter in my life. I felt I had fallen in love with design again, it had been present in the good and bad parts of my life, it had been the constant throughout.

One of the repeat prints I designed for Miss Selfridge whilst I was at Crew 2000 in Bradford.

I was at Crew 2000 for around 11 months before I was made redundant. I hadn’t been made redundant before and it was a huge shock. The company had employed me knowing the lingerie department was in trouble. They decided to dissolve the department and move any further lingerie business to the swimwear department - as the two were seen to be similar in approach. I felt my final chance at having a successful career in lingerie design had been taken away. The industry had been increasingly utilising the talents of in-house designers at overseas factories, thus the need for a ‘middle man’ designer like myself was significantly diminished. I worked in retail for a few years afterwards, trying to find work within design but I found employers were, and still are, very blinkered in their requirements for creative employees. I found I had to fit their specifications exactly or I didn’t get to the interview stage. Using creative agencies proved to be fruitless as they themselves became the middle man between the designer and the employer. They had the power to dismiss your CV before the employer got the chance to see it, regardless of how many versions you developed!

In September 2012 I began a BA (Hons) in graphic design at the Batley School of Art. I had managed to secure a place on my previous experience alone and felt that this was another new start - maybe this was what I was meant to do! I had already had experience in branding and packaging design whilst at E.B.I and had thoroughly enjoyed it, so thought that a career in this area of design was the way forward. I had gone straight into work after leaving school at 16, so had never experienced the whole ‘student thing’. I loved my years at Batley School of Art, I was the only mature student in our group of 12 but I loved mixing with younger people. I was never made to feel old or excluded, they felt like my contemporaries. I graduated in 2015 with a first class BA (Hons) in graphic design - the only one in the group - so felt confident I would land a job in the industry within months. Sadly, this was not meant to be. I applied for numerous jobs but to no avail. What was wrong with me? The rest of my group had secured jobs within graphic design soon after graduation, so why hadn’t I? Was it my age?

My winning design chosen to represent the Batley School of Art End of Year and Degree Shows for 2015.

Fast forward a few years and here I am almost at the end of an MA in Fashion Textile Practices at the University of Huddersfield, which again has been a fantastic experience. The thing is, I still don’t really know what I want to do once I leave university, and at 48 years old you think you should. I have been knocked back many times and have picked myself up, but how much more experience and qualifications do I need to have a career in the creative industries? Sometimes I have wondered whether it is design I love or because it’s the only industry I have known since I was 16. My love for design is so strong some days and then other days I couldn’t give a monkeys, I suppose it’s like any other long-term relationship, it has its highs and lows. 

The Space is the Fold T-shirt is meant to represent the conflict of silence vs expression, but it is also indicative of the struggle I have regarding my own abilities and creativity. It’s a representation of ‘self’, so I thought keeping the text almost unreadable against the background would represent how I am currently feeling at this point in my life, I feel like I’m fading into the background, that I’m being replaced by something better, more talented and younger. But the fact that you can still read the text is a sign that I haven’t totally gone, that I’m still here trying to figure myself out. Hidden messages within the folds reflect my insecurities regarding my creativity. They say ‘No confidence in my abilities’ and ‘Am I too old for a creative job?’ because that is how I feel. I wanted the fabric to look aged, also a representation of my status - a mature creative - so I ran it through a strong mix of tea to achieve a yellowed tone.

Strong tea mix in the fashion spray bottle. Tea is a surprisingly good dye, although it can be hard to judge how the finished results may be. I felt lucky with the mix I did and then used the remainder once cold to spray over the top of the finished T-shirt.

I had quite of a lot of white and off white leather pieces to use, so used the same font a before as the main body of the text. I did want this T-shirt to look different than the others, but still have some of the same features - such as this font - to link it to the other pieces.

I had cut out the patches prior to sewing on the T-shirt then folded and pressed  them to see where the fold lines would be. After stencilling it was easy to see where to re-fold and sew on the patches.

Front and back views of the finished T-shirt. I sprayed over the top with the tea and it had mixed slightly with the black that had previously been in the bottle. It gave like a dirty tea effect which I liked, it added to the worn and faded aesthetic I was after. 

[xjiang16-blog]

Essay

AX3002 Essay 

David Brown, Cinematic Animation Director, Friday 8th March 2019

David Brown is a cinematic animation director at TT Games. He learned a lot from different things in his degree works or jobs. Now he leads animators to work with a big group of people. David Brown said, ‘it is good for them to have well freedom to come up with those different ideas.’I have to say that although I am doing my film by myself, it is really important to keep different ideas or compositions for each shot in mind. For me, it is the first time to focus on each step of a project. I thought that if I already have an idea for my film and an animatic. The rest things to do is to do the film on the basis of the former processes. However, there are still many problems during the rest of the work. For example, my thought in animatic is to do a shake shot, but I am not able to demonstrate the changes of the perspective for this scene so I might need to reconsider the type of shot when I do the film. So it is important to keep thinking about different ideas to deal with these problems that probably happen. If I always keep the old version, I may not get a better result of the film. I am thinking about various angles or actions before I start doing a shot. He said, ‘You need to say what we focus on is telling the story of a game.’ everybody need to touch the project. (Brown,2019) It is true that whatever for a film or a game, there is a story in it. What we need to do is to show the other people who do not know the story and let them understand. A story can be told in a lot of ways. I am going to show my film to other people who have not seen my film before, it is easier to get objective comments. It is a risk to do it, because it may need me to change the character’s performance in different ways. 

Linda McCarthy, Stop Motion Filmmaker, Friday 23rd November Linda McCarthy is a stop motion filmmaker. She works in her studio. After she took a career break to raise her 4 children. She returned to academia and specialized in stop motion animation.  Because there are some 3D characters in my film, and I am also confused about how to create facial expressions in stop motion animation. So I had a talk with her in cJAM event. It is similar between the 3D digital model and the real model. Linda McCarthy told me that in stop motion animation, they model some faces with different expressions, and then change the face directly if necessary. It reminds me that I can use the blend shape options in Maya instead of using controllers. Because in some teaching videos online, they usually use controllers to control those high-quality models. So I forget it is easier to use blend shape options for these very simple models. Linda McCarthy also said, ‘it is important to manage time.’(McCarthy,2018) it is really close to the final deadline on 20th May. Without the 3-minute film, I still have some other works to do, such as the poster, showreel, and art of the book. I need to complete my planner for the rest of time in the milestone3 to make sure I can finish my film on time. 

Saul Blinkoff, Animator and Director Saul Blinkoff is a Disney animator and director. Saul Blinkoff began his career as an animator for the WALT DISNEY STUDIOS working on the hit films Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, & Tarzan. In the lecture that I found online, Saul talked about his early experience when he was 11years old, he wanted to be a filmmaker. And then, when he was in junior school, he updated his mind and he wanted to do an animation in Disney. Saul Blinkoff said’ the only thing you can control is how hard you work’ and ‘ focus the only thing that you can do better.’ (Blinkoff,2015) In his early period at Disney, Saul Blinkoff had to remember the objects that he needs to draw in his head. When animators make animations, they not only refer to the actors' poses but also refer to their own expressions in the mirror. Trying to do things better is not only applicable to my current film. I am not particularly good at expressing ideas, but I have a lot of stories that I want to tell. Now I need to express myself in the form of art and another language. Maybe there will be some mistakes in the production process so that the work cannot be presented in a more perfect form, but I cannot give up. It takes harder work to do the film I want. 

Kevin Spruce, Thursday 14th March 2019 Kevin Spruce is known for his work on Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Doom (2005) and Lost in Space (1998). He works in the animation department and visual effects. Kevin Spruce received three nominations. Two of them are for the Guardians of the Galaxy. He showed a lot of fantastic works in Guardians of the Galaxy. Especially for the character Rocket Raccoon. Rocket Raccoon is a genetically engineered raccoon. So he is redesigned from the real raccoon on earth. In order to walk like a human and also he needs to do some performances that a real raccoon cannot do. Kevin Spruce said they really did various different styles for this animal. Kevin Spruce said, ‘learn how to animate from real life.’ (Spruce,2019) It is true because whatever you create an amazing and non-realistic creature, it is based on some real creatures on the earth. That reminds me that I actually did not take enough reference when I design my characters. There is an eagle in my film. I did not draw it in a realistic style. It stands like a human. Although I want it looks cuter in cartoon style, it brought some confusing problems when I started to model it. For example, Because the body shape is not like ordinary birds, so how to place the wings is affected by the design draft. Also, Kevin Spruce showed some original testing videos of how to make these animal characters walk more naturally. Because most of my characters in my film are in 3D, so I realize testing is important. Although my eagle character will not appear in many shots, it is harder to make it fly and jump naturally than the main stone character. To make sure it can look better in my final film, I really need to do some testing videos and check. 

Hjalti Hjalmarsson, Animation Director&Actor Hjalti Hjalmarsson is known for his work on Agent 327: Operation Barbershop (2017), The Daily Dweebs (2017) and Caminandes: Llamigos (2016). This is a talk called ‘The Principles of Animation’. He showed an example of a bouncing ball and explained the principle at the same time. There are thirteen principles include timing&rhythm, spacing, squash&stretch, arcs, anticipation and more. The purpose of these principles is to make the characters in the film act more naturally. This makes me realize that sometimes when I keyframe for my stone character, the animation of the stone looks very strange. I must ignore some principles when I keyframe. Like a stone, I think it would be weird if it stretches. Hjalti Hjalmarsson said, ‘if you have a thing coming up in your screen and the viewer might not already know what it is like it may be the viewer didn’t know this was a razor blade it wasn’t really established.’(Hjalmarsson,2017) Now when I keyframe for my character, the space between two frames is not the best. When I put character animation is into the after effects with the background, I modify the length of time. Perhaps this will make one shot look more natural, but it may affect the overall feeling of the character animation. In order to make the audience realize what my character is and what he is doing. It needs more testing video to make the animation more natural. 

Conclusion I think it is important to get the professional experience out of these speakers from the business. A film is a story, whatever it is long or short. Kevin Spruce said, ‘work with professional artists.’ from the conception to the performance of a story, it is necessary to learn from professionals. There are still some apartments that I do not have ideas with. The intention in my film is subjectivity, is to show a spiritual and physical growth after a series of challenges. It is also a cute style film. So the choice of sound is also important. Although my story is needed to be modified by the tutors, I still think that all the changes need to be made on the base of my original point of view. Success takes time. I hope my film can convey my idea. Kevin Spruce impressed me with the various 3D models that he presented in his speech, as well as the motion test videos. Only overcoming a lot of trials and errors could get success is my initial thought. I wish I could let the audience make sense of it. Although this film is my personal work, I will keep improving the rest of work. I want to make a film that shows the best of skills that I have. Lectures 8th March 2019 David, B(2019). Cinematic Animation Director. UCLan Lecture.14th March 2019 Kevin, S(2019). UCLan Lecture.23rd November 2018 Linda, M(2018). Stop Motion Filmmaker, cJAM Event.Videos Hjalti, H.(2017). The Principles of Animation- Making Of. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJeoPAGbfY [Accessed 6 Apr. 2019].Saul, B. (2015). A Jewish Disney Animator/ Director- Making Of. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCErSdd_agY [Accessed 5 Apr. 2019].Images Reference 1: Linda, M(2018). The cJAM Event. [Image] UCLan lecture. [Taken 23 November 2018].Reference 2: Kevin, S(2019). [Image] UCLan lecture. [Taken 14 March 2019].Reference 3: Hjalti, H(2017). The Principles of Animation- Making Of. [Image] Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJeoPAGbfY [Accessed 6 Apr. 2019].