#they actually did struggle like millenials struggle today

[realasslesbian]

This boomer opinion that "my kids deserve no inheritance, I'm going to spend it all on jetskis and cruises, they should just work hard like I did uwu" is so funny to me because this is the same generation who'll constantly berate the childfree about "leaving behind a legacy" and it turns out the legacy these boomers are leaving behind is their children struggling with lifelong poverty during the worst financial times since The Great Depression, something that their own parents went through and subsequently left these boomers an inheritance so as to avoid.

[lowkeyrobin]

if your taking requests then can i get an mcyt hcs of a s/o with long hair that's curly but like in a taylor swift debut type curly not like a barrel curls type way. anyway so their s/o's hair is like mega wild and they just never really style it, they brush it and take care of it but just not like sit down and style it, and so their hair is almost always down naturally and just how they'd react to it

yes of course!! thanks for the request, I rlly like this one :D hopefully I got everyone you're looking for here lol 🫶🫶🫶

MCYT ; you have long & curly hair

includes ; tommyinnit, ranboo, freddie badlinu, niki nihachu, quackity, and foolish gamers

warnings ; language

y/f/c = your favorite color

masterlist

TOMMYINNIT

absolutely loves your hair

he loves playing with it & he loves losing his hands in the density

he never asks to style your hair or anything because he doesn't know shit about it, but he likes being walked through how you care for it

at one point he randomly blurts out "you know, I've never seen you style your hair before"

"What, do you want me too?"

you guys have this whole little (civilized) conversation about your hair and how you prefer to wear it down instead of trying to fight with it

he gets interested if he can try and style it himself for you because he thinks you'd look so awesome with some styles

you shrug and let him

he does some simple stuff, needing your help to braid and whatever

he does a waterfall braid, then tries out some small, simple updos and two French braids

after that you go outside while the sun is sitting and take a bunch of pretty pictures of each other

he absolutely loves your hair, natural or styled

he loves learning about how you take care of it and you let him help you do so as well

he just likes watching you do stuff with your hair in general, and likes asking questions on what everything does

such a sweetheart fr

RANBOO

bro you literally saved their dead, fried ass hair /lh

it first started over the fact that you pointed out how fried their hair looked and that they needed to try new products so they took advice from you, obviously

literally spent 5 hours in the bathroom teaching him all about the products you use and what they do for your hair

and obviously they'd work different for both of you because you have totally different hair, but it'd still definitely help his hair

you introduce him to some more clarifying shampoo and massage-in cream/lotion to help his hair not get really dry or overly greasy and excentuate the fluffininess of their natural texture and the layers in their haircut

genuinely doesn't trust anyone with his hair other than you

always asks you questions about his hair, considering you know best

he likes watching you take care of your hair as well, like when you massage your scalp with oil or detangling, or diffusing it after a shower

he also helps you with a lot of this because he genuinely wants to and reaching the back of your head is a struggle sometimes

like when/if you have to section it and clip it up, he'll be there with the hot pink clips and a dream

you teach him all about different combs and he just nods the whole way through

he did actually retain that information

tweeting out shit like "ranboo just learned what a wide tooth comb is today, #parenting #momlife #dadlife #millenial"

FREDDIE BADLINU

loves learning about your hair texture

he also loves taking care of it for you

if you're too sick or tired, just sit down in the bathtub

he's got the detachable shower head, a towel, your products, and a dream

a dream to just make you sit down for 3 seconds and chill, God damn

anyways, you teach him all about the different products you use, how often you use them, why you use them, etc etc

you let him play around with your hair sometimes, but not that much

he likes braiding like 3 strands of your curls together to make some little braids and whatever to frame your face but that's really it

when you're cuddling and stuff, he totally like massages your scalp and loves getting his hands tangled in your curls

it's like a nap when you wake up with lines on your arms/face and your mouth is all dry like you've been drooling

best feeling ever

"wait, what's the difference between almond oil and coconut oil again?"

"the diffuser is this thing, right?"

after a while, he knows all the words like a second language

he ends up getting bored one day and doesn't wanna do the dishes so he decides to organize all your stuff for you

you already had little system but after a while you just threw things back in the general vicinity where they belonged so he was like "eh fuck it this is more fun than doing dishes"

he makes sure to sort by the order you use them and how often instead than in color order which

you walk in, see him organizing and just walk out bc no way in hell were you disturbing him nor were you gonna organize it yourself LMAO

QUACKITY

he really doesn't understand all the different products and tools but he does his best to learn

he just likes helping you take care of it and stuff

he notices literally all your combs and brushes are like breaking at the seams so he's like "fuck it I'll buy you new, more high quality ones"

he's a gift giver/acts of service guy what can I say

he makes sure they're either in black, white, or your favorite color, whatever you prefer

even gets you a new water bottle for backup bc the old one barely functioned

also reorders anything when you're running low asap

will gladly spend 200 dollars on hair care products and replacing old stuff

your happiness matters more than how much money he has in his pocket to him

also helps you organize all your stuff once you get a good little setup going

deadass streams it too

"wait, why aren't we doing it by color?"

"Why would that make sense? you always organize this kinda stuff by the order in which you use it"

"Okay Hermione Granger"

"bro what"

the silence 💀

he barely knows the difference between a fine tooth comb and a master sketcher but it's okay

don't even try to ask him the difference between all the different types of oils

literally gets embarrassed like "no! I knew that, I thought you were talking about something else!"

he's a lawyer and a streamer, not a salon professional dude 😭🙏

NIKI NIHACHU

she loves your hair no matter what you do with it

she loves being able to comb through it with her fingers or help you just tie it back if you're gonna get messy or stream for a bit

don't even worry about having to take care of it out of the shower, she's got you

she knows the whole routine front to back

you guys share some products

especially combs and brushes but duh

it's a mix of black, purple, and y/f/c LMAO

she frequently disinfects all your combs and brushes and everything for you too

after time she labels all the combs and brushes and whatnot so just in case you guys don't mix anything up, especially if you'd rather just not share certain things just in case which is totally fine!

she loves putting clips in your hair to push the front bits away from your face

she's got those cute, little, silver star ones

absolutely loves the smell of the stuff you put in your hair

when you're snuggling, she'll always hide her face in like the crook of your neck or in your hair cause it's genuinely soothing

she also likes braiding 3 strands to just frame your face and to add a cute little sign of her so you carry her around all day basically

FOOLISH GAMERS

has no idea of what's ever going on in the bathroom

but he'll help you if you need it anyways

"whats this one for again?"

he's got a hairbrush, a comb and some clips for any backup random shit

he has no idea what eggshell infused keratin etc etc means (I was trying to thing of my shampoo but can't remember other than the eggshell part LMFAO)

he does like asking questions about everything and learning what it does

"Why do you only use some like less than others?"

he's just here for the learning experience

notices some tattered tools in drawers/cupboards so for your birthday he gets you a whole new set of stuff from a really fancy brand

"Holy shit, how much did this cost??"

the silence afterwards was SO LOUD before you heard quackity literally cackling behind you

tweeting shit like "foolish just learned what a rat tail comb is. holy shit" and "foolish just learned about shrinkage today?"

in his defense, he never really though about shrinkage that much, he totally didn't put it into perspective and forgot your hair is technically double/triple the length of what he usually sees

like you'll pull it away from your face to demonstrate and he's just like "damn how long have you been growing your hair??? how have I not noticed?"

also a photographer when it comes to you

loves posting pics where your hair is a defining subject and just really perfects your presence and beauty <3

[itspurpleturtle]

3/22/2024

I need an outlet. So decided to get back on here. Things have been feeling off lately. I've been trying to figure out what it is. Is it the hormones? Change in time? Pre-shadow period for mercury retrograde? Did I jump into another timeline? I can't help but feel uneasy about something. Maybe I'm just overthinking things again. After all I am a Virgo, and Virgo's are known for being the worry warts if the zodiac.

I also can't seem to shake off the dream I had last night. All I could remember from the dream is that my dad, and my late mother were sitting on the couch. What freaked me out was obviously still alive in my dream but my moms corpse, or spirit or whatever it was, was there sitting next to my dad. There was a coffee table in between us, and all I kept on saying was I'm sorry, I'm sorry over and over again. They had these sad looks on their faces. Then I just kissed the coffee table and said I'm sorry and walked away crying. Sometime during the dream the scene changed into me or someone shooting an arrow at my dad. That's all I could remember during that segment. Then all of a sudden I'm in my dads funeral. I didn't like that, I woke up and tried to shake it off. It was about maybe 3 or 4 AM. I tried to go back to sleep thinking about happy thoughts. Then when I woke up a couple hours later, I was still confused on what it could all mean. I need to decode it or I can let it go and not take magnesium caps right before I go to bed again.

I was really starting to get in touch with my spirituality and my journey. I used to be in tune with the moon cycles and do my rituals during every full and new moon. I was starting my tarot reading journey. I don't know what happened. But I really do need to go back into it. I don't know why it seems so much harder this time around.

I'm not sure I actually got to process my mothers passing. I went straight into caretaker mode and was only thinking about making my dad feel okay I never made space for my feelings. Maybe I will start therapy. I just don't know about paying for it at the moment. I do feel frustrated that I am the sole financial caretaker for both me and my dad now. I was struggling with just taking care of me. Plus the dog. I know we'll be okay, but it's too much for one person. Especially when I'm a millenial who has no idea what the fuck i'm doing. I hate being the only child sometimes. We'll be okay.

I guess that's all for today.

[roc-thoughtblog]

Sense and Sensibility Readthrough Part 7

Chapter 10, Pages 39-45

Previously, Marianne and Margaret went for a run up a hill, got rained on, and ran all the way back down. A romance novel male love interest picks up a fallen Marianne, takes her home, and acts very mysterious-romance-novel-male-love-interest-like.

Marianne is obviously infatuated.

I end up thinking too much about the unfathomable nature of skin-tones today, though I think I also managed to struggle a bit more than usual concentrating. Definitely ran quite overtime.

Readthrough below.

Chapter 10 Willoughby visits, and is charmed.

Miss Dashwood had a delicate complexion, regular features, and a remarkably pretty figure. Marianne was still handsomer.

Oof. Wait, hang on; we're getting description. This is the most description of Marianne's appearance! Incoming:

Posture's not as good as her sister, but she is taller. Skin is of very brown overtone but a very visible "uncommonly brilliant" undertone. How brown is very brown? Are undertones a thing or did I just make up something I think I overheard once? I'm about to go on a tangent into what undertones & overtones are aren't I. BRB. Also she has very dark eyes that are quite full of life.

My understanding of skin tones mostly comes from being a poor artist and getting messed up trying to figure out how they work because they DON'T STAY THE SAME OVER ANY PATCH OF SKIN OR CONSISTENT AT ANY ANGLE. And SPLOTHCY. SPLOTCHY EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME. So I get a vague sense of what Jane Austen is trying to get at. From what it sounds like, Marianne is pretty generally brown on the surface but also fairly rosy in all those fleshy parts that do the most weird multidimesional optical illusioning that skin-tones tend to do? She probably turns very red when she's blushy, is the implication anyway, that I could have just said on the outset but then I went and buried my head in seasons and carotene and foundation.

Maybe I'll use Marianne as the subject of a skin-tone study. I suck at skin-tones and this is the most I've ever thought about it in years.

Anyway, she's embarrassed at first but they quickly hit it off; this is all still a no-dialogue cutscene so Austen's really skipping over any occasion for Willoughby to talk. Well, from the sounds of it they'll be chatting for hours... mutually charmed, all the same tastes, etc. Ah, haha, she does bulldoze over their differences a bit. Willoughby doesn't put up a resistance; either he's too charmed or, as a 25 year old, he doesn't want to debate an enthusiastic teenager. Well, at least he's not 35.

Dialogue resumes as soon as he leaves. I should keep a note of which important characters have been conspicuously reserved by the narrative; Willoughby and Edward both been. Poor Margaret is just unimportant.

Elinor thinks Marianne's going to fast. Run out of things to talk about soon. Marianne gets snippy and returns fire;

"But I see what you mean. [...] I have erred against every commonplace notion of decorum; I have been open and sincere where I ought to have been reserved, spiritless, dull and deceitful - had I talked only of the weather and the roads, and had I spoken only once in ten minutes, this reproach would have been spared."

She's getting her back for the attraction-to-fever line. I sort of agree with Elinor, I get the feeling Willoughby isn't y'know. As passionate as Marianne is, so much as just humouring her. But either way he's charmed so. He keeps coming back day after to day, to "check in" on Marianne's recovery.

Oh! But he does participate in her activities though. That is encouraging. And he reads emotively haha. Mama Dashwood loves him, but naturally Elinor finds his general, hmm, incautious demeanor to be disapprovable. Marianne has seen in Willoughby the saviour that justified her impossible standards! I call that she's probably more than a little infatuated and Willoughby's gonna turn out to be less than everything she thought he was, or that she wanted.

Infatuation is wild isn't it.

Mama Dashwood's already hearing wedding bells, as she would. Elinor's starting to see that Colonel Brandon really does have small interest in Marianne (after everyone else stopped caring because he's not interesting). He gets Elinor's pity and compassion for generally being a guy whose disposition implies like he's had a bit of a downer past, and also for generally being compared against Willoughby. Also because Marianne will never stop being mean about his age. Though I wonder how much of his improvement in Elinor's eyes is precisely by nature of Willoughby having arrived to be worth disapproving.

Oh Willoughby finally talks, and the first things he says involves going off on poor Brandon;

"Brandon is just the kind of man," said Willoughby one day, when they were talking of him together, "whom everybody speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to."

Aww. My image of Brandon has really changed. Before it was like some kind of caricature of a retired military man, making him look very much on the 50-60 end of 35 years, with a brush moustache. But after all that, man. Now I just see a tired older millenial. You know, the particular kind of tired millenial who are just stuck in a perpetual state of scraping by slowly while anticipating middle age behind the next big hill, while still getting berated by the older gens for being millenials, and getting memed on by the Gen Z for being old.

Did I just call Marianne a zoomer?

Well, meming on older people is just an age/maturity thing, not a generational thing. Happens every time. Even 200 years ago, in a book.

A... Anyway...

Elinor justifiably defends Brandon from Willoughby's more exagerrated character attacks. Then he keeps talking, so she just sticks to calling him and Marianne out instead for being prejudiced and-

"In defense of your protégé you can even be saucy."

HOLY SHIT. I mean the more I hear out of Willoughby's mouth the more of a jackass he seems. No wonder Austen kept his mouth shut for a bit. This whole thing just escalates into an argument that ends in a disagreement. Elinor thinks Willoughby as holding an unjustifiably contemptuous attitude towards an inoffensive and unfortunate person; Willoughby's annoyed that Elinor's pressing him on the matter as he simply views his own observations of Brandon's social deficiencies as factual, and probably to his eyes therefore not contemptuous in nature.

And Marianne is just being actually the pettiest and meanest one here because she's Marianne and Willoughby is enabling her.

"You shall find me as stubborn as you can be artful. I have three unanswerable reasons for disliking Colonel Brandon; he threatened me with rain when I wanted it to be fine; he has found fault with the hanging of my curricle, and I cannot persuade him to buy my brown mare. [...] And in return for an acknowledgement, [...] you cannot deny me the privilege of disliking him as much as ever."

Willoughby's whole closing argument is some great character stuff. He said earlier that he didn't dislike Brandon; I like that it's a bit up in the air whether or not he genuinely had no issue with the man, and was just being very distastefully insensitive, or whether he was actually heartily prejudiced against Brandon for those three petty reasons and wasn't being up-front with himself or anyone else until Elinor called him out. I'm leaning towards the latter, personally.

Either way, he is petty enough now to really double down on disliking Brandon in this moment; for no other reason than as to spite Elinor for managing to convince him not to.

Yeah I don't think I like Willoughby very much. Literally, one of those guys who seems nice until they open their mouth, wow.

As a side note, for the spitefulness of the dialogue, the narrator's been very sparing of the less pleasant aspects of Marianne and Willoughby's characters. Imagine if they were minor characters like Sir and Lady Middleton! Would definitely have just torn straight into the two of them on top of just letting them talk.

[whats-the-story-tc]

4th of February, 2020

"The One with Aphrodite and the Tempest"

[LONG POST WARNING]

You know it's cold outside when V wears a sweater. I swear this woman owns only 3 types of upper body clothing — flannel, striped or something with cats on it, with the occasional something grey.

First time I spotted her before Physics, she was crossing the "bridge" with the relentlessness of a warrior. Here's to another cheery day at school, I thought. I was already tired and half asleep by then and it wasn't even 10 AM yet. Pocketwatch Friend told me to hold on, as we only had 3 more classes left, "two of which you'll enjoy." I don't think I need to specify that one.

Rumours spiralled that, even though we were having double Literature today, V would have us write a previously promised Grammar test. We all started studying in a complete state of panic. What we didn't expect is that, indeed, she was going to quiz us—but in spoken word instead, by the usual rolling of her magic geek dice.

There's this competition between a girl and a boy. He jokingly claims he is better than her at everything, she challenges him. Whichever one of them has better grades at the end of the year wins. V is an absolute fan of this competition, and is pretty vocal about her support for the girl. She was V's first victim today, and when she failed to answer her questions, V, shoulder leaning against the wall, smiles and asks her "How are you gonna win this competition then, babydoll?" Haven't heard her use this pet name for any of us in a hot minute. We're usually fairies or kittens lately. (Pet naming children as a teacher is a thing here folks, don't get alarmed. Our homeroom teacher, for example, calls us her darlings all the time.) Now that I think about it, I don't think she ever called me personally any of these. The day she does is probably the day I die.

Next one up was Know-It-All, who, contrary to his pseudonym, knew fuck all about romanticism, and basically bullshitted his every answer very stupidly, having us all in a laughing fit during those ten minutes he was in the spotlight for. The faces V made were the best, I swear. She tried so hard to be polite and not to say what she thinks, and, in the process, looked at me every half a minute or so like a cry for help. Pocketwatch Friend, who also noticed it and thought it interesting, later explained it as "You're the one who's a bit higher up the intelligence scale out of all of us, of course she looks at you. And you're the one who talks to her." I don't think I was of much help, though. I was giggling the entire time. Especially when V admitted "I have no idea what's going on."

Her third and last victim was Bandana Friend's best friend, and the entire time she listened to her, V was sat in her chair, leaning back, legs crossed, absentmindedly chewing on her pen/holding it to her lips in concentration. When I tell you I could barely keep my calm, I mean it. I'm more attracted to her personality and wit than I am to her visually, but like... holy shit, you guys. The situation only worsened when she started writing on the blackboard, left hand in her back pocket... Thank God she wore a sweater. Were I exposed to that waist of hers, I don't think I'd still be alive to tell the story. "Take your hand out of your pocket," I muttered in agony, through gritted teeth as I watched her. Pocketwatch Friend had a lot of fun at my expense.

We read Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death today, featuring the character of Prince Prospero. V, sitting on top of her desk as she always does, asked us if that name was familiar, and left us a little time to think. Then she looks straight at me with her usual looking-at-me expression and just waits in silence. I'm panicking and probably going red in the face under that gaze that was simply too close, and, with a hand on my chest, nervously asked her "Me? Why are you looking at me?". You guys. Eyes are the first thing I usually notice in a person, the one thing I am a sucker for. And this woman has eyes to live and to die for, unparalleled by anything of this Earth and beyond. Under eyes like that, I think anyone would've struggled to form coherent thoughts. I think I know what Sappho felt when she wrote Fragment 31. As she went on to explain, she was looking at me because there is a character with the same name in Shakespeare's The Tempest. She still associates me with him, it seems. Oh, the nostalgia. Fun fact, Hamlet was the topic of our very first conversation out of class back in October 2018.

In the lunch break, I vented to my friends how I can never really impress her, no matter how hard I try. She and I both know what I know, it just frustrates me that no matter how precise and fancy I get, even then I fuck things up, or miss my chance and I can never surprise her. Turns out I was boo boo the fool. Again.

In The Masque of the Red Death, there's this ongoing motif with the clock striking, which symbolises the coming of Death. As V was talking about this, and how it frightened the guests of the masquerade, I said "I guess you could say their clock was ticking." And what do I know, she not only calls it good, but when I looked at the blackboard, she actually included it in the analysis notes! I said something useful. I was absolutely over the moon.

The Boys in the Back, in their usual mood yet again, were talking non-stop. As I looked at the annoyed V, I could read "for fuck's sake" off her lips before she told them off. Goodbye, V the professional, hello, V the civilian. I had a good laugh.

I don't know how partying came up in conversation, but Blonde Boy in the Back asked V: "Miss, do you go clubbing sometimes?", to which she answered "I'm too old for that". You are still a bloody millenial, dear, stop acting like you're sixty. But, on the topic of old ladies, when we spoke grotesque, scary and bizarre, she brought up having a room full of porcelain dolls or an old lady with a house full of cats, who looks cute on the outside but is quite creepy, I immediately went "Umbridge". At first, I didn't think she heard me, but a few seconds later, she tied what I said into what she was going to say. I feel valid.

Today, we had some rain and incredibly strong winds. "There were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before." As a girl from my class was reading these lines, another strong gust of wind came with a whistling sound, making the windows tremble and everyone went silent. "I think it just arrived." I said immediately. Another strong blow. "[Name], I think you conjured it." I said, and looked at V, leaning over her book, trying not to react, but I think I might have seen the faintest smile run across her face.

Towards the end of the lesson, V told the gang in the back to pass notes instead of talking, to which I said "old school", and she did that thing again where she repeated what I said. Then cats came up once again, I think it was Debate Friend saying that a cat staring at a wall for an hour is creepy. "Cats will stare at a wall for an hour anyway cuz cats are crazy." V said, without missing a beat. I'll have you reminded that V owns a cat herself. And, apparently, a Netflix account, as she mentioned having seen Episode 1 of Moffat's Dracula with the boyfriend yesterday. May I just say... couple goals.

~ S ♡

[Every story I share here, no matter how specific I get with my wording, depicts actual events from my own life.]

[batfam-bro]

Spoiled brat Boomers

You ever hear boomers tell you stories about how lazy millenals are because they won't 'do what we did to get where we are today' and they're story sounds to you the equalient of 'I just told Daddy I needed a job and he hired me'

Like my Mom and Dad.

My mom got to go for a fullride on disability at college because she had asma. Two years into getting her associates degree she takes a year off college, not because of declining mental health, fincial trouble or to get an job to help cover bills like most college students I know that do that, but to have fun and date my dad.

During that year off they got an unexpected pregnancy(me) because my mom 'Always wanted kids' and didn't think that she needed to time it to fit her lifestyle so she didn't bother with any form of contraception(She lived through the 80s btw)

But when they got the news my mom describes being happy and giggly and that there was no worry about paying the bills with a new baby and my Dad worked at a low level job and my mom was a housewife until I started preschool at which point she would work part time at Dunkin' Donuts. Which the public transportation in our area made it safe, cheap and easy to get there. And bills were met easily.

Then she goes on to recount how her being a dumbass and having a kid with no planning and not even trying to stop it from happening left her with responsibilities I am not prepared for despite being her age when it happened. I don't bother to tell her I don't have to deal with this cause I actually treat contraception with a level of importance since I know I am not ready to raise a kid and so does my gf.

She then goes on to tell me how she struggled to pay the bills with jobs most millenials would kill for(15 bucks an hour or more with no degree or experience needed)

And how she had to take out a loan and experience nursing school for 1 year in order for our family to get the life she wants for us. And how as a working mom she has to work and take care of some of the chores in the house.

Like this just sounds like a fantasy to literally anyone who's ever tried to make it as a millennial in this economy

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 2x10 What’s My Line Part 2

aka if you’re the Slayer and I’m the Slayer then whose shirt is this

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and point out / hyperfocus on one detail in it in 10-3k words. Or maybe go through each and every random scene I choose. Rules are fake.

And today I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well What’s My Line Part 2 holds up. Like you know what, Kendra is still great, and Xander and Cordelia’s relationship is still baffling.

What’s My Line is technically the first two-parter of the show, although people often treat the very first two episodes as a 90-minute-pilot. However, while those told one continued story, Welcome to the Hellmouth was still very much a pilot that set up not just those threads that are then resolved in The Harvest, but the entire season, nay, the show at that.

Part 1 of What’s My Line meanwhile is only setting the stage for its conclusion, and as a result has much more difficulty standing on its own I think. And I’m not just saying that to justify how I almost completely ignored what happened in the episode itself when choosing my rant yesterday. Well, maybe just a little... But I’ve also just watched Part 2, and holy crap, so much more stuff is happening here.

Before jumping into the excitement, let’s start with some quotes, and the best kind of them at that: out of context.

Willow:  I mean, two Slayers at the same time?

Willy:  What are you gonna do with him anyway? Spike:  I'm thinkin' maybe dinner and a movie. I don't want to rush into anything. I've been hurt, you know.

Okay, so the latter is pretty much hinting at stuff that’s essentially canon, while the former is literally just me taking a line out of context entirely, but you know what, deal with it.

Like dealing with this 90s fashion statement.

I know, right? Fabulous.

You know what else is fabulous? Kendra.

(God, I’m killing it with the segues today.)

I commented last time on how the accent was a weird choice when no one seemed to have warned Bianca Lawson in advance to prepare for that, but you know what, she’s making it work. And her and Buffy’s storyline here is actually much more interesting than I remembered.

I like that this isn’t a one-way street where Kendra needs to learn to loosen up and make friends. Because she’s also right when she tells Buffy that her relationship with Angel clouds her judgement. (She also ends up being right about them having to kill Angel at some point. Just saying.)

They even acknowledge each others strengths. When Buffy says that her emotions are her assets, Kendra’s answer isn’t to belittle her approach, but to say that while that may work for Buffy, it’s not what she prefers.

I love this song.

And yes, Buffy then tries to convince Kendra to utilize her emotions more, but I also like that moment during the church fight, where Buffy proposes for them to switch opponents. I like to think of it as her realizing that cop lady needed an opponent who had a much more sophisticated technique than her, while she was calling on her already sizable contempt for Spike to kick his ass.

And by the end of the episode, Kendra is still not a hug-person, and that’s okay.

It’s hard to talk about Kendra, knowing what will happen to her, but I really was pleasantly surprised by how much better her storyline is here than I remembered. She essentially serves as a contrast to Buffy, yes, but I like that it’s a contrast that they can both actually learn from.

Her line about being the Slayer being a calling rather than a job also neatly ties into what Buffy’s been struggling with during Part 1. Yesterday I likened Buffy’s apathy towards her future in lieu of her responsibilities to a burned out millenial in today’s job market. But Kendra’s observation puts that jaded approach into perspective.

Buffy doesn’t stand up to the forces of evil on a daily basis because she has to or because she doesn’t have a choice - she does it because she does have a choice. She has a choice to make the world a little bit safer and she’s the kind of person who would take on that responsibility time and time again.

They really are the best of girls.

Meanwhile Drusilla (there really is no easy way to segue to Drusilla from Kendra, huh) tortures Angel for what he did to her family. Which is... kind of fascinating? The way vampires retain certain parts of their human selves, and twist others seem to wildly fluctuate from person to person, and it will probably come up later on in these discussions.

This is also the episode where Xander and Cordelia start hooking up... And it’s weird, isn’t it? Especially the swelling romantic music that starts playing whenever they kiss. Which, when I was younger, would signal it for me that this is some grand enemies-to-lovers romance happening. Now that I’m older and more jaded it plays more like a comic effect highlighting how this will all obviously fall apart.

Eventually.

But at least my last two braincells are talking about monkey pants, and that’s just very on brand.

Aaaaand, I’m almost at the halfway mark of the season! I’m very prepared and not at all scared to get emotionally scarred by this show all over again.

Yeah.

[seharker-blog]

Education of Memorable History in a Post 9/11 World; or, “We Care, You’re Just Not Telling the Story Right.”

Every year on September 11 I make a usually long-winded Facebook post about my thoughts on the event and the way we regard it however many years after the event, because every year the perspective on it seems to change. This is an event that occurred when I (and most of my friends) were in our early grade school years, and as such it’s treated with a level of tragedy from people who are older than me because it’s assumed most of us either don’t remember it or don’t care. As with most things that are new in our time (cell phones, laptops, social media, plague-like anxiety and depression), older generations assume that Millenials and Gen Z have a severe and fatal case of Just Not Getting It when it comes to the severity of September 11.

I was born on March 23, 1996. I was five years old on September 11, 2001, and I have spent much of my life studying and struggling to understand the tragedy and the implications of it to the best of my ability. Let’s dive in.

I don’t own as many books on the subject as I used to, but for today I’ll be referencing the CBS News book “What We Saw,” released in 2002 with a foreword by Joe Klein in 2011.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in my kindergarten class, probably reciting the ABC’s or practicing counting by 5′s. The event didn’t reach me until later in the afternoon, because I went from school at 12:45 to go to my grandparents’ (who took care of me while my parents were at work) house. My grandfather watched TVLand, my grandmother watched Law & Order, and my three- and seven-year-old cousins were not going to turn on the news to see what was happening. When my father arrived to pick me up at around 4:30, he was baffled that my grandparents had no idea what had happened. He took me home, called my usual babysitter (who lived next door) to come distract me while he kept an eye on the news, and waited for my mother to get home.

When she got home, they stood in the front hallway and hugged each other for a while. I wasn’t there to see it as my babysitter was doing a great job at keeping me away from them. They talked about the implications of a major terrorist attack on our country, considered what this would mean for our future, and eventually went outside to sit on the porch swing and think about what would come next. That day often feels like it lived within its own bubble, as though everything slowed to a halt for the day while everyone took their own time to process what was happening. 3,000 people were dead, and what their deaths would mean for the future of the world was beyond our comprehension.

I ran into the living room that night about an hour after my mother got home. My parents were sitting on the couch watching the news. At first I thought they were watching a movie (apparently I thought it was Independence Day), but they rebuffed this and told me it was the news. Then I believed it was downtown Cincinnati, where a great aunt of mine lived, and started to lose it. They sat me down and told me about what happened, choosing transparency over sheltering, because they believed I needed to understand.

What you need to understand about young people is this: We will care passionately about the things you allow us to care about.

The reason I remember 9/11 is because my parents chose to inform me rather than protect me. If you treat younger people like actual people willing to learn and understand, they will.

The decision to tell me about what happened on 9/11 shaped who I would become. My fascination with history and the nature of mankind began with sitting on the couch with my parents to watch the news about what happened. The sight of smoke rising into the air and filling the impossibly blue sky with a thick haze is something I will never forget. Papers were fluttering through the air, smothering the ground in a deafening silence that would last, it seemed, until the fires from the towers were finally put out in December of 2001.

Oh yeah. In case you didn’t know, the fires from the towers burned until December of 2001. Exactly 100 days after the attacks, the fires were extinguished on December 20. The fences surrounding Ground Zero were covered with missing posters, people stood by the site every day praying that their loved ones would be pulled from the rubble. The death toll on that day was 2,996. Thousands of bodies were pulled from the rubble of the towers, the Pentagon, and the burning hole in the ground that was left by Flight 93. The most recent body to be identified was in July of this year (2018). There are, right now, 1,111 bodies that have yet to be identified.

September 11, 2001 is the most prolific day in my own personal history. It shaped so much of who I am now that I don’t know who I would be if I’d walked into the living room, asked my parents “Are you watching a movie?” and they’d simply chosen to say yes. I was given an unprecedented chance to show my parents that I cared. That I could rise to the occasion and choose to be informed about the tragic events that occurred that day. I, a five-year-old kindergartner who was only just learning how to read, was allowed a chance to be a person before I was dismissed as a child. 

That is why I care. That is why I feel so impassioned about not only 9/11, but about current events from the time of 9/11 until today. Because my parents, the people responsible for instilling a love of learning in my still-forming brain, decided that they needed to do just that. They let me be an adult in a five-year-old’s body for the day, and as a result I have a passion for learning that I often see the older generation crying that my generation does not have.

Passion and interest are not inherent (at least not in most of the cases I’ve seen). They need to be drawn out of people when they’re young or oftentimes they will never come out. If you feel disdain towards young people in regards to their attitude toward 9/11, I want you to think about the way they were told about the event when they were young, if they were told at all. Did you inform your children of what exactly went on? How old were they when they knew they had lived through it? Did you give them the chance to have a real impression of the event, or do you only complain because they “just don’t get it” now that it’s 17 years in the past? Did you allow them a chance to have a feeling about this very harsh reality before you blamed them for not caring?

My parents are divorced now. After more than 20 years of marriage, they just couldn’t be happy with each other anymore. The reasons why don’t matter now, what’s important is that two very different people with two very different views on the world came together to create a person whom they wanted to not just be a good kid, but a good person with real views on the world that they could formulate based on the experiences they had in their formative years. My parents didn’t get lucky that I was an eager learner who wanted to be informed. They instilled this attitude in me during the most tragic day they’d ever lived through. They breathed in, considered their options, and on the exhale brought me into the living room as a member of the family who needed to know more.

We aren’t stupid. We aren’t apathetic or  vapid. We just need to be given the chance to understand. We just need to hear from you that you care about us caring about the world, and we will, undoubtedly, care.

So stop blaming young people for the decisions you didn’t make when they were children. We can’t control the people you raised us to be. We want to care. We desperately, rabidly want to be part of the adult world with adult feelings and opinions from a young age and your reluctance to allow us is not our fault when we grow up and have no passion about the events of the past. That’s on you.

Tell the story better. Allow your children a chance to care, and they will.

I promise.

[emmilynestill]

Why Legends of Tomorrows 3x01 Arrowverse Easter Eggs were incredibly misguided

First let me say I enjoy LOT, I love the characters, but I had a hard time enjoying the first episode (which would have otherwise been a fun episode) because the “cute little” Easter Eggs, that they presumably put in there for hardcore fans of the Arrow verse (like me), frankly pissed me off.

And I’m not just talking about the Felicity shade, but the fact that they actually caused HUGE continuity errors.

Here are my issues:

1.       Sara

For those who didn’t watch LOT on Tuesday, the Legends were fired and spent 6 months elsewhere, Sara went back to Star City (logical) and…worked at a Supermart?  Bored and dreaming of being a hero again.

Why this is stupid:

a.       Her father is Deputy Major and her good friends, Oliver Queen, mayor of Star City, they couldn’t get her a better job as say…a body guard?  Maybe to Oliver’s brand new and very vulnerable son?

b.       Even if she wasn’t a body guard (which was most logical) why couldn’t she go back to being a bartender since she was one at Verdant (everyone else in the Arrowverse is a bartender when they’re down on  their luck).

c.       Sara in Star City would have immediately rejoined team Arrow.  Immediately.  She has close friends there who respect her and Oliver needs back-up because of said new son.  So…probably wouldn’t be that bored.

d.       None of this is even taking into account I’m pretty damn sure tonight’s episode isn’t going to mention Sara being in Star City for 6 months.  And if Lance doesn’t do that HUGE continuity error.

 2.       Ray

After the firing, Ray goes to silicon valley where he tries to sell his nanotech to the social media company he is working for.  His snarky gives-millenials-a-bad-name boss throws shade on Felicity by saying, “if you hadn’t given your company to a woman who ran it into the ground…”

So…if you aren’t a fan of Arrow you wouldn’t even catch that reference, but if you are a fan, the majority of us are pissed because if you love Felicity (and most fans do…sorry reddit) you know that is untrue and rude. (Though, I’m sure that small group of fanboys who hate Felicity due to her being bad for their fragile egos enjoyed it).

I could write an essay on how Felicity did NOT run Palmer Tech into the ground.  She and Curtis were saving it with their tech, but she was fired because she wanted to make the tech available to everyone (and because she was too busy saving the world to make board meetings).

Also, this would be the first time Ray officially came back from the dead. For this?  Makes no sense.

3.       Nate

They were kinder to The Flash, as they usually are, but this still made no sense.

Nate was in Central City working with Kid Flash…only wally didn’t really need him. Except we had just watched an entire episode about hoe team Flash was struggling without Barry and could really have used an indestructible Superhero those last 6 months.  But, nope, Nate wasn’t mentioned once!

(Cisco DID mention Felicity and Curtis in a very appropriate if spoilery Easter Egg where he was mentioning all the geniuses he had consulted to get Barry back, so kudos Flash writers).

 So, LOT writers, please don’t try to please Arrowverse fans if you don’t know as much as Arrowverse fans!!!!

Tagging the ladies who had me ranting about this in my head on the way to work today: @dmichellewrites @scu11y22 @hotcookinmama @ireland1733

[synnefo-nefeli]

It’s because we’ve had nearly 30+ years of the “young genius” narrative where those people gave actually gone on to shape the world we know today. Instead of treating these people as truely outliers, they’ve become expectation. People are always looking for “the next Gates, the next Zuckerberg, the next person” who’s going to make an insane amount of money discovering an unregulated resource and shaping it to their whim and shaping the culture around that thing.

Then on top of it we’ve had numerous generations who were able to have everything on their adult checklist: House, spouse, kids, job security, career, car by 25.

However, due to entering an unstable economy, uncertain job market, but with technological advancements that afford more flexibility, and creativity for their lives compared to their parents, Millenials are going through another growing phase right after their college years. As many can’t afford the adult check-list that their grandparents or parents did at their age. Millenials are taking their time because they literally cannot afford to buy a car, a house, find a spouse, have kids, while struggling to pay off massive debt while working for companies who either have no jobs or little loyalty to keep them for 30+ years like they kept their parents, when they can find someone “younger, dumber, and cheaper to replace you” (<- my baby boomer boss said this proudly to me).

However instead of sympathizing with the generations they helped cripple, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who are still in power, sneer at Millenials and Gen Z for being vapid, selfish, lazy, frivolous, bucking the system, etc., because they still hold us to these old expectation. These “‘back when I was your age I had x,y, and z/I got want have because I worked hard’” statements that show a failure to understand that most *are* working hard with a really shitty situation. While choosing to ignore that they helped cripple us, Baby Boomers/Gen Xers, havent realized that times have changed, and therefore cultural expectations should as well.

However there is light at the end of the tunnel: As expectations have failed to get with the times, you can exploit this. Just get through your 20s, and once you’re in your 30s, Boomers and GenXers will naturally assume you have your shit together and will leave you alone. Seriously, the moment I turned 30 it was like a huge pressure to preform was off of me. Suddenly the decisions I made were considered “bold” and “living my best life” when in my 20s, those same decisions would have been met with derision from the 40+ crowd.

I absolutely hated my 20s due to this mentally that I needed to accomplish something significant/hit all these arbitrary milestones that don’t make sense to me to stress over because they were frankly unattainable to me. Now in my 30s, it’s a lot easier to breathe.

So chin up, take your selfies, make your shit posts, stay out late, make your mistakes, take years to find your dream job,do those “extraneous” hobbies, classes, whatever makes you happy.

You have so much time.

Why does being in your early 20s feel so much like only having 5 years of your life left in which you need to achieve as much as possible? why do I feel like I have an approaching deadline for success?

[tonidorsay]

The American Generation's Time is now

This, right now, is our chance. This time, this moment, this slim and narrow slice of time. This is our moment, our time, our chance, our opportunity to do what has not been done in a 100 years, and change the course of America, and change the shape of our children’s fates, their lives, their world. Generation X, Gen Y, Millenials, and the younger Boomer sare the most liberal, most affected, most stubborn and focused Children of America in a century. We are greater than the Lost Generation, we are more durable and tough than the Greatest Generation. We outshine, outdo, outstand, live out, stand out, shine out more than they ever did, and we are at a moment and a time, right now, more than ever, that defines who we are, collectively, as people, as the latch key, mixed race, internet fueled, computer driven, trophy for just showing up collective Modern American Generation. We are overwhelmingly “socially progressive”, and not one of us has lived without the certainty that our social security, our retirement funds, our medicaid and medicare, our schools and our colleges, our debt balances and our savings account are all going to be gone or so overwhelming that we do not see ourselves as owning a home to live in beyond one generation, so shattered that even as so many of us were the first in our families to move on, we are also likely to be the last, who escaped the ghettos and ‘towns and the violence and the gangs and somehow managed to find something that is only more slavery, still legal, after all these years. This is our chance. Right now. We are the disabled, the women, the gay and lesbian and bi and trans, the Black and Brown and Native and PacRim. We are the Legacy of the Civil Rights movement, grown and raised in its ugly aftermath or its social burial. We are the American Generation, moreso than our Founding Fathers and our Murdered tall men. We are so American that we take it for granted and even laugh at that idea, the idea that what unites us, right now, is some vague notion of what it means to be born in the borders of a country that has spent centuries breaking us, defiling us, defaming us. We stand on the shoulders of all those who came before, and we celebrate them — those we have pulled out of the wreckage of those before us, and those who had the imprimatur of legend granted by those in power. We do not forget them, we do not let them be lost, because we find from them the strength to be what we are: The American Generation. Whose time is now. Whose chance is now. Whose opportunity is alive and struggling in this moment, and we have taken hold of it and we are, truly, wondering what the fuck do we do with it now. The election of this Pretendent has shattered our ability to see this as a place where slow and steady can get there, and if there was ever a time to abandon the dribble and drabble of incremental and compromised change, this is that time. We start with the candidates we support. I know that a great many people do not like the Democratic Party. I do not blame them. There is much to dislike about the people who have control over it, the people who have been going to precinct meetings and who have made friends with the same people who started going decades ago, when the time and the tide was different, people for whom change and simply good ideas like a universal basic income are “scary” and “unworkable” and “never sell” — and they think that because the only people they ever turn to, the only people they ever have encounters and conversations with are the same people they’ve been doing that with for the last twenty years. So yeah, I totally get it. That whole “we need to win, so we can’t do that” idea that has been so strong for them for so long! It let them defeat that Dubya dude, and it kept hold of governorships and state legislatures so well that now we can pass a constitutional amendment without a sweat. Oh, wait, no, that’s just about where the folks who oppose the USA, the Constitution, the idea of Human Rights they hate so much they lie and call it “identity politics” are at present. That’s right. The Right. A right that is so corrupted by anti-goverment, anti-human rights, white supremacists, anti-semites, homophobic and transphobic bastards that they make our own internal divisions over those same things seem like arguing over which color of flower is better by comparison. So, yeah, I get why you don’t like them. What I don’t get, my fellow American Generation people, is why we aren’t doing anything about it? We have options. We can riot in the streets, engage in rebellion, sit down and laugh at people trying to tell us what to do. We can start a civil war and let the dreams of a Culture and Race war the right has let fester for so long become reality, and watch the blood of our compadres run down the streets and wash the walls as the power of the full State is leveraged against us. We can take the subversive track, and take over and control everything that has to do with children, period — daycares, schools, Colleges, cartoon shows, tv shows, movies, music, the works! We can pour everything we have into making sure that the generations coming now will be smarter, better educated, more brown and black and yellow and red and blended than any generation before. Or… We can decide that we are going to take over the Democratic party the same way that the Tea Party and the “alt-right” took over the Regressive one. That one is actually easier. That one is how we get our voices heard when it comes to things like finding the new candidates, and making sure that people who vote to confirm unqualified people to head cabinet posts in order to protect themselves because they face re-election suddenly find themselves with a primary challenger that they never expected. It is where We start our runs for office, it is where We stand so that they have to look us in the eye when they say that reapportionement will never happen or Single payer just isn’t possible, and where they cannot escape enough times to avoid having to tell us why they are talking about why we shouldn’t do things instead of talking about how we should do it. This is our chance to make sure that the old guard has to come to us, because we will unite under one glorious purpose and we will take over a party and we will not merely change the status quo, but we will change EVERYTHING. Because this is not just about opposing the orange fuckup shitting in the White House. And this is why This Is our Time, our Moment, our Chance, our Opportunity: This is about changing everything to work better, to work more fairly, to work more efficiently and more in line with the ideas of human rights. ALL OF THEM. You see, right now, the bad guys, they are dismantling everything. Which is a bit of a blessing in a way. They are taking it all apart. They are dismantling the system s that didn’t work as well as they should have, and part of the reason we know that is because they are being dismantled. If they had been the good systems, then this wouldn’t be happening. Because the people doing it wouldn’t have been able to do so. This is our chance to build a better Government, one that makes laws and metes justice out in service to human rights, not human wealth. It is easier to compromise among Liberals — for us, it is a hallmark of how we work: collectively. We all share certain basic premises in common. We may differ on the value of capitalism, on the the import of of taxation, on the need to advance the cause of the Individual. But we are united in our love and our zealotry over Human Rights. Civil Rights, Gay Rights, Women‘s Rights, Trans Rights, Disability Rights, Labor Rights, Better minimum wage, my personal campaign for a maximum wage, Ageism, better retirement and health benefits, single payer, universal basic income — ALL OF THIS IS HUMAN RIGHTS. It is not “identity politics”. It is how our individual groups work together to achieve the same goal: human rights. I have talked in the past about how the single most radical change we can make is a simple thing, a renewal of focus and a sharpness that will without doubt have a political cost. Simply pass a law that all laws and justice must in service to human rights. If at all possible, make it an amendment to the Constitution. Enumerate those rights as completely as possible, and make damn sure that we leave room for those rights we are yet to know. Change apportionment. If you support third parties, and want to see more than just Republicans and Democrats, change apportionment. There will be those who say that the math favors it becoming two parties. The catch there is that the math does it “over time”, not instantly. It will take time — years, in fact. Right now, 1 person is expected to represent, fairly, the concerns and interests of 700,000 citizens. Explain to me how that works out well? It doesn’t by any measure I have tried, and I have tried a lot of them. Adjust that to something more like 100k, and it is still unfair, but now we have a whole bunch of districts where gerrymandering is suddenly undermined incredibly. Yes, the Capitol building is not big enough for them all. So what. That’s jobs for an area that needs more blue collar jobs, right? Good jobs, if they do it right. To some that will mean more gridlock in getting legislation passed — and I’m like SO THE FUCK WHAT? IT means having to do the hard work of figuring out how to get something done, not just ramming it through. It shatters coalitions and lessons the voice of the right. It works in favor of liberal compromise. But note, as well, that shattering of gerrymandering in the states. That’s key. That is a game changer. And all the third parties can go at it — although keep in mind, most of the third parties in this nation today are conservative, not liberal. To get there, we take over the Dems, and then we let the fracture happen. We have a chance to make a more powerful environmental defense, an opportunity to make Civil Rights a cabinet level posting. To write the minimum requirements of experience for these roles so that billionaire asswipes don’t get picked. We have the chance, right now, to do this and more. To make a change and a difference so profound that it will shatter the shitheels who put the orange fuckup shitting in the white house there. This is our chance to do what was done once before: to make America prosperous and to mitigate and shatter old systems that are horrible for all of us. All we have to do to start that process is take over the Democratic party (easier than you think, and far less than 25 hours a month), and then make sure that in 2018 and 2020 that the Senate and House become overwhelmingly Democratic — even if that means running “republicans” in primaries who later switch party after election — andfinding and runnign kick ass candidates for every office locally and nationally in the interim and getting them in office. No mattter what the odds are. How do we do that? What is the messaging we use? Human Rights. Not “civil rights”. Not “gay rights”. Not “women’s rights”. Human Rights. We talk about using human rights to ensure that everyone in the US gets a chunk of this nation. We talk about how the prosperity of the old days was built by people who focused on human rights. How with eht cahnge in our manufacturing base and the rise of automation, we need to find ways to ensure that no one is left behind, that everyone has a chance at a great education both in grade schools and colleges. We already have the policies developed — we talk about them, we sell them. 12,000 a year to every single person in the country, young and old, rich and poor, and hey, now the dream isn’t just to find a partner, have some kids, buy a home and work at a job, but to start your own business or to learn a new skill or to follow your dreams, as a person, no matter what they are, and build a better life for yourself and your children than you have right now. Because that’s what human rights focused and centric thinking does. IT doesn’t decide *if* we should help, like every single Republican Regressive fuckwad idea does. It decides *how* we should help, and for that we need everyone’s voices, and that means those people who feel abandoned and left out and ignored and scared and wondering where the hell the jobs are. Well, the jobs are not with corporations, they are with small business owners, bakers and copy shops and little convenience stores and the next great basement inventor. They are there in the dreams of those who want more, not those who want less, as Regressives do They are in the American Generation, where an app can make you a millionaire or a sidewalk art piece can make you famous or playing a game can make you a hero. This is our chance, our moment, our opportunity. Let’s take it. Take the Party, Take the Election, Take the Nation. And Build a Better America.

[superfamigos]

Sam’s GDC Recap: Day 2

All right, here we are to review Day 2 of GDC, Tuesday February 28. Today was another day chock full of talks. I was on a Summits, Tutorials, and Bootcamps pass, which primarily take place Monday-Tuesday, so I was trying to make the most of the talks I could get to. I still did have a little discretionary time, and met a few nice people. Let’s get into it.

(And check it out! It me! Photo courtesy of Tim Rogers’ Twitter.)

Failure Workshop

Speakers: Michael Molinari, Adriaan de Jongh, Tim Rogers

Overview:

Michael Molinari talked about his interactive Twitch game CityStream

A city building game that combines elements of idle games, Twitch Plays, and realtime DMing

Reasons the game didn't do well included:

Paid content was permanent, so no reason to keep buying

Had to work double shifts to run the game live (more on this in Details)

Got too confusing as more and more things were added

Adriaan de Jongh talked about closing down his game studio Game Oven

Discussed background of the studio and costs of keeping it open

Various struggles for the team:

They had different deep motivations (for the kinds of games they wanted to make, and how to run the studio)

Media articles often gave credit solely to Adriaan, not the rest of the team 

Their roles were undefined, which caused tension

Tim Rogers talked about the failure of his digital sporting good VIDEOBALL

In some sense, Videoball was not a failure, because Tim designed his own favorite game

Videoball was already super hype in 2013

Took too long to get the game out, and had a weak message (I thought the trailers were awesome though - Ed.)

Various problems that contributed to the game's failure:

Inherited the burden of a publisher's expectations (to make the game bigger and better)

Divided their work into "have-to's" and "want-to's" (which led to moving the “want-to’s” into overtime work)

Original publisher went out of business during production

The first-time game experience for new players was too difficult, and often in the wrong environment (they intentionally prioritized a player's 1000th experience over the 1st, which led to the game's appeal not being apparent at first, especially in 1v1 like many streamers and Let's Players did)

Too much stuff in the game (online play split matchmaking into ranked and unranked 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3, plus arcade mode etc.)

The menus were not perfect (e.g. confusing at some parts)

Spent much less than $1 mil promoting the game

Lessons learned from the game:

The game was great: we can make great games

Game conventions are loud and stupid: we should have shown at universities, etc.

You can't make eSports, it just happens (shouldn't have diluted matchmaking with so many modes and just had ranked 2v2, which is what the game was designed around)

We could have made a dumber game (with more identifiable characters, etc)

Gave ideas on how we can save Videoball (essentially a stripped down, ad-supported free version)

Interesting details:

CityStream was only playable in one place: the CityStream Twitch channel. Now that the game has ended, there's no way for anyone to play it.

CityStream's character BEEP, a robot who narrated the action, was actually played in real-time by the team. They watched the game every day with the players and wrote live responses, because they weren't able to come up with a good automated solution. This led to double shifts where the team worked on the game during the day, and then played the game on stream at night.

CityStream ended with a really cute event where players flew to the moon while riding atop the city they built

The business model of Game Oven was to run a company on the "long tail" of sales from many games.

It cost approximately 6500 euros per month to run Game Oven, which went to 3-4 full-time employees, contractors, and other costs.

In the end, long tail sales wasn't enough to run the company, but other sources helped them make it. In other words, Game Oven wasn't closed because they ran out of money.

Communicating your vision and your frustrations is hard, but important

Despite all the problems, Adriaan is still friends with Bojan, and he's proud of what the team accomplished together

"Videoball launched, and my life has been a garage sale ever since." - Tim Rogers

With VIDEOBALL, Tim wanted to create the Burberry scarf of video games (iconic, high-quality, premium)

When working 16-hour days at some point during development, Tim worked out that they were probably making 4.60 per hour

People have said VIDEOBALL's design style is "preschool industrial," and called the game itself "Pong for millenials" and "2D Rocket League"

Tim showed an awesome illustration by Dan Dussault of what VIDEOBALL could look like if the look was un-abstracted into armored future soldier sports

Thoughts:

Failure Workshop sounds like a pretty depressing talk, but it actually wasn't too much of a downer. I mean, I don't want to downplay it: it's hard to see the struggles people went through, and you wish they could have succeeded. And it's also scary to realize that your chances for failure as an indie dev are also very high.

Fortunately though, the speakers generally had a positive outlook. It was good to see that they could pull lessons out of their experience, and they were still at it, trying to make games. CityStream and a lot of the games from Game Oven were very unique and creative, so it was cool to see a lot of new ideas, even if all of them didn't work out. And Tim Rogers' talk in particular was one of the funniest I went to at GDC. Definitely some of the best crowd response I saw.

Links:

Failure Workshop (Video) on GDC Vault: The full talk is available for free on the GDC Vault!

Failure Workshop (Michael Molinari Slides) on GDC Vault

Failure Workshop (Adriaan de Jongh Slides) on GDC Vault

Tech Toolbox

Speakers: Michael Cook, Holden Link, Brian Williams, Cukia "Sugar" Kimani, Chris Martens, Innes McKendrick

Summary:

Michael Cook of Falmouth University showed a procedural assistance tool called Danesh

A tool designed to help you tune your procedural generation

Allows you to not only adjust parameters and see examples, but also calculate metrics

Autotuning lets you set desired output metrics rather than mess with inputs to try to get those outputs

Danesh can search your code for other potential parameters to include

Available at danesh.procjam.com

Holden Link of Turbo Button showed off Tbutt, a wrapper for VR SDKs in Unity

Makes it really easy to compile builds for different VR platforms

Helpful for testing a project for a specific platform on whatever VR rig you have handy

For example, rather than compiling a build to load onto mobile for Google Daydream or Cardboard, the Turbo Button team can just flip a switch to test what they're working on with the Vive on their desk

Available at github.com/turbobutton/tbutt-vr-framework

Brian Williams of Spry Fox demoed Dark Config, a tool that allows real-time changes while the game is running by hotloading config files

You can define level attributes in config files and change those files on the fly, and the game will update instantly while running

This allows much faster iteration and proofing out new ideas using new combinations of existing assets

Uses YAML for the config files

Works with Unity or any other C# project

Available at github.com/spryfox/DarkConfig

Cukia "Sugar" Kimani talked about using Bezier curves to animate rectangles

From Johannesburg, South Africa, working in a studio called Nyamakop on Semblance

Talked about animating the main character, a little blobby dude, by deforming a rectangle using Bezier curves

(Wasn't able to get down many details, but it looked pretty neat)

Is winning the email game with an address that starts with "holla@yourboy" haha

Chris Martens showed Ceptre, or TinkerTool for rulesets

It's a small prototyping language for rulesets and logic stuff in board and video games

Could be helpful for testing resource economies (like Minecraft crafting), procedural generation (like Spelunky) or interactive fiction

Available at github.com/chrisamaphone/interactive-lp

Innes McKendrick from Hello Games talked about the texture generation in No Man's Sky

Their goals were to create variety, allow for runtime generation, and amplify the work of a small art team

They mix and match different layers and elements (base color, stripes/spots, hair, etc.) of individual textures created by an artist

Wrote a photoshop script to export color maps and metadata

For better color control, don't work in RGB (they use HSV)

The game loads in artist data, then combines and recolors in the shader, and finally generates a mipmap

They also wrote tools that let artists see lots of examples generated from their work, so they can make tweaks

Thoughts:

There were some very interesting tools in here. I was particularly into TButt, as it seems like it would be very useful for friends of mine that work on VR games in Unity. Danesh and Dark Config also seemed very useful, and using Bezier curves as an animation tool was interesting too.

Links:

Tech Toolbox (Video) on GDC Vault: Available for free!

Tech Toolbox (DarkConfig Slides) on GDC Vault

Tech Toolbox (Rectangles Slides) on GDC Vault

(The links to each tool are included in the summary notes, if provided.)

Lunch break!

After the Tech Toolbox talk, I got to talking with the guy next to me, Austin. He's a really friendly grad student from University of Michigan who co-teaches the only game development-related class at the school. He invited me to grab lunch with him and some friends, which included his game dev co-teacher Kurt, some grad students from Carnegie Mellon, and Rodrigo, an audio engineer and developer from WayForward. We went to Mel's Diner for lunch (where I got a old-school syrupy strawberry lemonade and a few very juicy, red-to-the-point-of-being-disconcerting sliders), and had a pretty fun time talking about Undertale, Splatoon, the Switch, etc. While Rodrigo and I were talking, I was excited to be able to tell him about Thumper, which he hadn’t heard of yet. If you're out there Rodrigo, hope you checked it out! Let me know what you think!

Unfortunately, lunch went a bit longer than I expected and I missed a talk by Matt Thorson (creator of Towerfall) about the level design for Celeste. Instead, I wandered around a bit in Moscone West until the next talks started, and ended up talking to Josh and Marcos, two Aggies who are currently working as generalists in the games industry (at Flying Car Games, I think?).

Finding ‘Duskers’: Innovation through Better Design Pillars

Speaker: Tim Keenan

Main points:

Rather than designing Duskers up front, the design of the game emerged during the course of development as Tim tried to listen to what the game needed

He gradually discovered several design pillars that guided development, but these pillars were less like mechanics or principles and more like emotions or feelings he wanted to evoke

These pillars included: realism, isolation, and careful planning

Tim felt that staying true to these pillars in all of his decision-making is what led to the effective communication of these feelings in the final game

Interesting details:

Duskers was very much inspired by Capsule, a similar terminal-based game set in space. (In fact, I was a bit confused when I first heard about Duskers, because I had heard of Capsule and wasn't sure if it was the same game.)

He was tempted to flesh out the look of the game world by showing a view of the area around the player's computer terminal before the game began. In the end, he decided to only show the on-screen display, in support of the realism pillar. The idea is that the player isn't controlling a drone operator character, they are the drone operator. This 1:1 simulation of the terminal helped players to feel like they were really there when they turned out all the lights and played.

Similarly, he tested two ways of showing what each drone "sees": a CCTV-like camera feed, and a less-readable view based on edge detection, which is closer to methods used in real computer vision for robots. Players liked the CCTV version more, but he chose the edge detection view, again to support the pillar of realism.

He also cut music entirely from the game to make it feel more real, which was a particularly scary decision.

Tim encouraged anthropomorphizing of the drones, which he hoped would make players feel like a lonely, slightly crazy freighter pilot. He gave each drone a name, and opted to let the drones obey orders blindly, rather than give them some level of AI autonomy. This made the drones feel more like pets or children than peers. He hoped that players would grieve the death of a drone, then realize how crazy they were being for attaching feelings to unfeeling robots, just as a drone operator in the game's world would.

He also increased the feeling of isolation by using logs to flesh out the game's world instead of direct dialogue with other characters.

Thoughts:

As someone who's really interested in imbuing games with emotion and feelings, Tim's success in achieving this with Duskers was really encouraging, and he had some good ideas on how others could do the same. The talk itself was engaging too. I recommend checking it out, especially if you're a fan of the game.

Links:

Finding ‘Duskers’ (Video) on GDC Vault

RUN and RUN / lyrical school 【MV for Smartphone】 on Vimeo: Speaking of 1:1 interface simulations, I was reminded of this great music video, which is designed to be watched on your smartphone (ideally an iPhone). If you’re on your desktop, go ahead and open it up on your phone. I’ll wait ;)

Fantastic Arcade 2016: Misfits Attic’s Sci-Fi Drone Sim DUSKERS - YouTube : Tim’s talk at Fantastic Arcade, which looks to cover some of the same content, and more!

How the dev behind Duskers let his game be what it wanted to be on Gamasutra : a Gamasutra Twitch interview with Tim that also looks like it touches on the same themes of the talk.

Shaders 201: Creating Art with Math

Speaker: Ben Cloward

Main Points:

Demoed methods for creating several shader effects, including:

A simple cloth shader

Animated rain ripples

A volumetric effect for something like ice with dirt and imperfections inside

Thoughts:

I thought this talk was fairly good, but it covered ground that I was already somewhat familiar with. The methods he described were fairly simple, and I’ve learned similar things about shaders in school already. The descriptions are a bit technical though, and I don’t remember most of it, so I won’t spend a ton of time on this talk. However, I will share some of the resources he mentioned in the links below.

Links:

Unfortunately this talk is members only on the Vault.

Uncharted 2: Character Lighting and Shading (Slides) : Ben cited this SIGGRAPH 2010 talk as the basis for the cloth shader he demoed.

Water drop 1 – Observe rainy world | Sébastien Lagarde : A series of blog posts that was the basis for the animated rain ripple shader demo.

Efficient Shader Tricks (Slides) : This GDC 2006 talk was the reference for the volumetric shader.

Another break

After this, I nearly went to the talk “Bringing Fantasy to Life in ‘Final Fantasy XV’”. Actually, to tell the truth, I actually got in the room for the talk, heard the speaker say that there would be spoilers, and then left (after a discrete pause so people wouldn’t think I was leaving for spoilers :P haha). In other circumstances I might have just stayed, but I’ve actually bought Final Fantasy XV and plan to play it soon, so I decided to abstain.

Instead, I went by the Shut Up and Sit Down board game lounge. I saw a few interesting games there, like the beautiful-looking Mouse Guard RPG. I think the comic series is really neat, and I’ve been seeing great reviews of the RPG as well. I was also intrigued by Beyond Baker Street, which was described as a Sherlock Holmes-themed Hanabi where you play a group of inept detectives trying to beat Mr. Holmes to the punch. I do love me some Sherlock. 

While there, I ran into my friend Jon, co-designer of the board game Skulldug! and host of the podcast Pretentious Game Ideas. We both worked at Microsoft Studios a few years back, but both moved on to different things. It was nice to catch up. He also told me about Bargain Quest, a game he had been watching a playthrough of. Apparently you play as competing shopowners in a fantasy adventuring town, which sounded pretty neat. 

After that, I headed downstairs and chilled with my travel buddy Brian until the last talk of the day, the Indie Soapbox.

Indie Soapbox

Speakers: Brandon Sheffield, Tanya X Short, Jarryd Huntley, Sadia Bashir, Marben Exposito, Gemma Thomson, Jerry Belich, Brie Code, Colm Larkin, Jane Ng

Brandon Sheffield: Taste in Games

Brandon encouraged the crowd to make more games that are different by showing their tastes and passions

Doing this can be risky, but can yield greater artist rewards

Cultivate your taste by:

Thinking about your favorite things

Asking others about their favorite things, and why

Going out in the world and doing something new

Going to the thrift store and finding 3 interesting things

Unleash your taste by making something that means something to you, not something bland and flavorless

(Kudos for the Guy Fieri cameo)

Tanya X. Short: How to Self-Care AND Meet Hard Deadlines

Your goals are:

Don’t burn out (making a great game is NOT your #1 priority)

Keep making games better each time (so you have to survive!)

Make a great game

It’s hard to take care of yourself, but believe you can do it

Moon Hunters, Mini Metro, Canabalt, Don’t Starve and more were made without burnout

Stop working all the time (and set specific work hours, it will actually increase productivity)

Prioritize and reprioritize, try to cut out the stuff that’s urgent but not important

Estimate how long it will take you to do tasks, then evaluate the actual time after

Cut the scope of your game before you bleed out

3 weeks of 60+ hours is proven to be less productive than 3 weeks of 40 hours

You’re not an exception

In a study of people who think they need less than 7 hours of sleep, only 5 out of 100 were correct

Don’t give up, forgive yourself for mistakes in self-care and move on

Lack of exercise should be one of the biggest worries, put your health first

Protect your love and joy and energy and don’t use it up by trying to feel more productive

Jarryd Huntley: Indie Rock - The Indie Cousins You Didn’t Know You Had

There are things indie game devs can learn from the indie rock scene

Like rock musicians, you don’t get started until you actually pick up the instrument. Just do it.

Try to take inspiration from wide life experience, not just “game X + game Y”

Work together and hire indie musicians for your game

Try making a local art manifesto with other independent artists in your area, maybe go on tour with a band

Try to learn from other fields that have similarities to indie game development, and support those people too

Sadia Bashir: 3 Things That Can Save Indies from a Pitfall

We think that our great idea is what makes our game successful, but what is really tied to success?

Conceptualize and plan at an early stage

Freeze requirements and scope throughout to avoid feature creep

Quality of a product is related to quality of development process

A hybrid process might be more successful than Agile

Marben Exposito: Subverting Expectations in Shower with Your Dad Simulator 2015

Develops a lot of short, silly games based on dumb Twitter suggestions

Finds it effective to mix the weird and mundane

Also effective was to subvert expectations

Added surprise secret game section, which people really liked

Gemma Thomson: Owning Your Place

The public perception of indies can be harmful

Often we see it as white men crunching on games in a bedroom

Sometimes we end up glamorizing bad working conditions

But life isn’t really Indie Game: The Movie, not everyone can afford to work like this

In our public and private conversation, we should a promote more realistic idea of game development

Jerry Belich: Venn Harder

Currently, the overlap between academia and industry is not too large

Contribute your passion to students

Help students learn more about design than just learning the tools

Opportunities include adjunct teaching positions, short-term teaching residencies, or collaborating with faculty

Brie Code: Public Speaking

Brie shared some tips for preparing to speak publicly

Remember “Why do I care?” and who the audience is

Create an outline (why I care, what I’m saying, why I’m saying it)

Use tips from “Can Charisma Be Taught?” study

Only one idea per slide

Pictures, not text

Practice a lot (and remember to breathe)

Realize you might always be anxious because it’s normal, redirect energy into the talk

Colm Larkin: Share Your Games

Colm developed in the open from day 1 on TIGSource, sharing early progress

Got good feedback, helped him get confident

A few related tips:

Your idea is not that special: execution is more important than the idea

No one is going to steal your idea (and if you do, you’ve been sharing the whole time)

Share work embarrassingly early, before you’re ready

It’s hard, but it helps

Get feedback before you get too far in

Get feedback on foundational stuff, not just polish stuff

Jane Ng: “Product” and Why That Shouldn’t Be a Dirty Word

Jar-Jar tongue candy: a terrible product

Often we don’t like talking about our art as a product, but it’s important to success

We don’t usually give feedback on “would you pay money for this?”

Consider experience not just for the player, but for the potential player

See making a good product as a design problem

Think about what makes a great entertainment product

Make sure the whole package is attractive to a potential player

And make sure your game isn’t a Jar-Jar Binks candy tongue

Thoughts:

I had a great time at this talk. Really rapid fire talks, and everyone had an interesting point to make. A few good laughs too. I highly recommend checking this one out on the Vault.

Links:

Indie Soapbox (Video) on GDC Vault: Available for free!

Talks I missed

Building Game Mechanics to Elevate Narrative in Oxenfree - Would like to check this one out after I play Oxenfree. Check it out on the free Vault!

Friendship, Curiosity & Challenge: Focusing Your Career as an Indie Dev - Also seems interesting, and also free to all.

Board Game Design Day: The State & Future of Board Game Design - I don’t follow the board game industry as closely as the video game industry, though I like playing board games. I’m interested to hear what was said here.

Board Game Design Day: The Making of 'Pandemic Legacy' - Also very interested in this, since Pandemic Legacy has been getting tons of praise. I’m scared of spoilers until I have a chance to play though.

Post-con activity

After the Indie Soapbox, Brian, his teammate Colton, and I went out to eat at Tropisueno, a fairly decent Mexican place very close to the Moscone Center. I got to hear a bit from Colton about his background and how his studio, The Stork Burnt Down, got founded, which was interesting.

After dinner, Brian and Colton went to the Oculus party across the street, which was invite-only. I had been considering going to a chiptune show at the DNA Lounge, but was again feeling pretty exhausted. So I headed back to the room to chill and play some Ace Attorney 5. A very full day.

[whats-the-story-tc]

18th of February, 2020

"The One with the Separation"

Another day, another flannel, another kind of beautiful. Fancy dress V is on a whole entire different level of pretty, but in her usual, smart casual attire, she's just stunning. Seriously. How can someone look Like That™ all the time?

We met briefly before I wrote quite possibly my most tragic Physics quiz since middle school. When she noticed me seeing her, she looked at me just as I was looking away. That was probably where we were meant to say hello, but we were both waiting for the other. Oh, well.

Soon as I was out of class, I found myself face-to-face with A. "I arranged for [Art Friend and I] to be let off of fifth period (V's) English so we can rehearse and you don't have to stay in the afternoon. But only if it's no problem." She lost me as soon as she said fifth period English, but I couldn't refuse. My schedule being tight as it is, I have to cherish every opportunity of free time, plus I had to be mindful of the others as well. If that meant only seeing V for so long, so be it. "That's alright." I said, even though my heart was aching to say no.

That very same break, V came in victorious, having rescued our loudspeakers, and told us not to give it away to anyone else anymore. The cables were quite tangled, and as V was struggling, Art Friend and I both jumped to the rescue, but in the end, she let me do it. "Many thanks," said V as I was busy detangling those cables. Maybe loudspeakers will be our always.

Film was on, V was sitting farther away from me again, so I could safely feast my eyes without it getting awkward. As Onegin smiled at something, I said "Human emotions, wow!" and looked at V, who was in a rather smiley mood today. I saw her open her mouth to speak, but decide not to. Wonder what she would've said. What she did say, though, was "Onegin is stalking Tatyana during the whole thing" making us all laugh. You see, she actually said the English word stalk, just conjugated in our mothertongue. This is a very Millenial/Gen Z thing around here, and it never fails to be funny.

It got a little noisy in the classroom, as the film went on, and a girl in the back yelled "WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU SHUT UP?" V not only did not tell her off for it, she said "That's what I would have said, only a little differently." "But Miss, you can't talk like that!" said another girl jokingly, and I looked at V, knowing what I know, and having heard what I've heard from her. A few seconds later, she looked me in the eyes, then away immediately. Pretty telling, if you ask me. Then, a little later, when Onegin and Tatyana were in this empty, white marble room, and... I think Onegin said "empty and cold", I commented "Like this room?". I got V grinning, who then replied "Like this room, yeah." We stan the cutest parrot.

The film ended, and V asked us what do we think happened to Onegin after that ambiguous walking-away ending. We figured he died, but V went further and asked us why. As there was a sled with a coffin on it in that shot, I immediately said it, and V got so excited she pointed at me. I was baffled — I honestly thought I was overthinking it again. Everyone else, however, was confused, so we went back to that shot. There were other guesses, too. Him sitting outside in the cold, and wearing black... but after those, V pointed at me again, now repeatedly, that mine is the thing she wanted us to see. Naturally, I got really excited. After all, I only bloody went and noticed something probably no one else from us or the other class did. (She wouldn't have got so excited if it weren't for that.)

After class, but before she left, I trodded up to her with this Onegin-related thing I found on Tumblr, that I've been meaning to show her anyway, just so she'd stay a bit longer. That grin I got for it... oh guys, easily worth every treasure in the whole wide world. As someone else got into a conversation with her, us two still standing beside each other, Bandana Friend was miming phone at me. Seconds later, I got a text. You look like [V], she texted me. Of course. What else. I know, I replied, with a couple laughing emojis. Like crazy, she responded. Then, as I saw V was about to leave again, I decided to speak to her again, and asked her what they were going to cover in the class I was to miss, which she naturally told me. Then, I remembered this other post about romanticism around the world that I wanted to show her, so I went ahead and did it. I handed her my phone. I don't even let my friends take it, who know everything about me, let alone that very V I have to keep certain things a secret from, so I was very surprised when I realised I did that. "How accurate is it?" I asked her. "Pretty accurate." she told me, a smile playing on her lips. After that, she really did leave.

How poetic. She was the reason I stayed on Friday, and now I'm the reason she stays.

Before rehearsal, I saw her on her way back to class, but before I reached her, she was already walking ahead of me. I watched her walk away. No violins in the background, which was a pity, but it does represent our relationship in a way. I can never quite catch up, now, can I?

~ S ♡

[Every story I share here, no matter how specific I get with my wording, depicts actual events from my own life.]

[lalka-laski]

Let’s start off with some basics. What’s your name? Elizabeth

How old are you? Way too old to be filling out Tumblr surveys but alas.

What’s your hair and eye color? Blonde hair, blue/green/gray eyed.

How tall are you? 5′7″ What’s your relationship status? In a beautiful, happy and HEALTHY relationship with my soulmate. Alright, enough of that. Let’s move on to the random shit.

What’s your favorite song? I could never choose just one but for the sake of the next few questions, let’s go with “Thursday’s Child” by David Bowie. What does that song mean? What is the message behind it? Simply put, it’s about being loved and accepted by someone who sees the light in you. It’s about coming to terms with your flaws and past mistakes to let yourself feel love. Is it your favorite because you relate to it, or do you just like the beat? It’s always been one of my favorites, even before I was in a positive relationship. I’ve always just loved its haunting but strangely hopeful sound. And I guess in many ways I’ve always felt like a “Thursday’s Child” myself. Have any pets? If so, what are they and what’s their names? Not presently Have you ever met your idol? I haven’t met any of them and I think in most cases I’d prefer not to What’s your favorite method of gaming? (PC, Xbox, Playstation, etc) I’m not into them If you’re in college, what’s your major and why did you pick it? I have a degree in English/Creative Writing and I don’t think I really need to bother explaining why, right? I like reading and writing. Pretty straightforward. How’re you doing today? Not bad! I’m really fatigued despite sleeping for about 13 hours last night, but otherwise I’m fine. Just having an ordinary but boring workday (hence the survey). What color are your bedroom walls? White Describe your favorite shirt. Lately it’s an off the shoulder cropped sweater that I’ve been wearing EVERYWHERE What’s your view on smart watches? Cool or a waste of money? Ehh... they’re not for me. I’m not that into gadgets and such, so I’d have no use for one. But I don’t judge others for wearing them/wanting them. What is one poster that you have hanging on your bedroom wall of? I actually have no wall decor in my bedroom right now! And I’ve been living in this apartment for over 6 months, so I can’t use the “just moved in” excuse anymore. I have some really beautiful artwork to hang up, I just haven’t gotten around to it. How many times have you moved in your life? Twice as a child, then twice for college (two separate colleges) and then once as an “adult” If you moved, do you like where you are now better than where you were? I absolutely ADORE my apartment right now. It’s cozy and homey but still has all the amenities of modern digs. It’s in a prime location that grants me all the benefits of city living (walking distance from my job, stores and bars, and a short car ride from anywhere else I frequent) but also all the advantages of suburbia (quiet, safe neighborhood). I really lucked out and I plan to live here for the next few years.

What’s your favorite color and why? Soft pink, because I aspire to be Elle Woods and/or a Disney Princess. Do you have a calendar? If so, what’s the theme? Nope. I tend to always buy them just because I love the look but then I never end up using them.

Have any famous person’s autographs? WELL I went to a Mat Kearney show and meet and greet at a local record shop and got his autograph & a photo. In all my excitement afterwards, I set the autograph down somewhere and lost it. (Typical me) I still have the photos though and that’s really all I care about. Do you draw well? I was actually decent at drawing as a kid/tween and I really enjoyed it. I’m sure I could’ve taken my interest further, but I was intimidated by the art scene at my high school. It was pretty cutthroat and the levels of talent were unreal, and I was just too afraid to even try. What type of cell phone do you have? Iphone 7 Should you be doing anything else right now or are you just bored? I’m at work right now and to be honest, there’s hardly any actual work I need to do. So here I am... Are you a cat or a dog person? Why? I’m a cat person by default because of my extreme aversion to dogs. I don’t like their energy and hyperactivity! Cats are calm and cuddly which is much more my speed. Tell me about the plot of your favorite book. I could never choose a single favorite, but I’ll describe the plot of the last great book I read: a former film star and sex symbol relays her life story in vivid, salacious detail, to a “nobody” journalist. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Reading glasses, on which I’m growing more and more dependent... What do you think about horror movies? I liked them in my youth. But as I grow older and more anxious (and more worn down by life’s shittiness) I can’t handle them as much. If you love them (I do), what’s your favorite? I like the classics like Halloween. Lots of suspense with little gore. Got any cool Christmas presents picked out for family or friends yet? I’m going on a family vacation a couple weeks before Christmas so we’ve all decided our money is best spent on that trip. We’ve agreed to do no gifts this year. Glenn and I are still going to exchange, however, since it’ll be our first Christmas morning together and I mean, we gotta open SOMETHING! Do you do Black Friday shopping or wait for Cyber Monday? Neither appeals to me Have any mental illnesses? Wow, what a question! What’s your favorite word and why? In all seriousness, I hate this question because I can never think of a clever answer. I like lots of words!! Don’t put me on the spot like this!! What is the most expensive thing you own, and what is it? My Smart TV maybe? Did you buy that item yourself? No, it was a graduation gift. Where do you work and what is your position? I work at a fertility clinic and I do administrative work and some marketing. How often do you cuss? A lot more often than I realize What type of car do you drive, if any? I don’t Do you have a lot of social media accounts? Which ones? Tumblr obviously, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. And I have an Instagram but it’s a “finsta” so it’s not associated with my actual identity. What is your favorite genre of music? Most of what I like falls into rock/alternative/new wave categories Does your family have holiday traditions? If so, what are they? We do, although they seem to have gotten all out of sorts these past few years. But the advantage of that is now we can create new ones! If you’re in a relationship, are you happy with it? It’s bliss <3  How long have you been with your significant other? A little over a year officially, although we were “talking” for about a year prior. I know, so millenial.  Do you like psychology?  Oh for sure, the human mind is fascinating.  What is something your state is popularly known for? Everything associated with New York City, although that’s hours away from me. Other than that hmm... Wegmans?  Do you like to do craft projects? If so, what’s the coolest thing you made? I do! I actually need to bring my art desk and craft supplies over to my apartment so I can craft more. I love scrapbooking, paper quilling, painting little trinkets and knick knacks... all kinds of projects! Do you watch sports or do you think they’re overrated? They don’t interest me much at all.  What’s one occupation you think gets paid too much and doesn’t deserve to? Well while we’re on the topic of sports, professional athletes are disgustingly overpaid.  Do you straighten your hair? My hair is naturally pin straight but sometimes I’ll run a straightener through it depending on what style I’m going for.  Ever dyed your hair a color that isn’t natural? (blue, pink, etc) Never How’s your relationship with your parents? This is tough. My parents are good people and they certainly worked hard to provide for us financially and materially. And they did spend a lot of quality time with us. My dad was a lovable goofball and my mom was a nurturing, quintessential mama hen. That said, they weren’t perfect and a lot of their shortcomings have created long-term issues for me. I struggled with my mental health a lot as a pre-teen and teen, battled disordered eating and developed a drinking problem (among other things). My parents solution for all of this was to essentially place me on lock-down and send me to a therapist while offering no actual support of their own. They rarely, if ever, checked in to see how I was progressing or to help me get to the root of the problems. I missed out on a LOT of natural milestones that I should’ve experienced because of my perpetual lock-down, and I never combated my binge-drinking; I just learned how to better hide it. So I resent them for this and I often wonder where I’d be in life if I got the support I needed, when I needed it. So while I still love them and we do have a solid relationship (we talk daily), I’ll always feel a little sour about that. Do you still live with them or do you have your own house? I live on my own, which has been a great relief and in many ways, has made our relationship stronger.  What’s something you are currently saving money for to buy? I’m just trying to live... lol  Do you smoke/vape? If so, what brand do you smoke/what device do you use? I don’t do either. I own a CBD vape pen but I don’t really use it.  Ever done drugs? No hard drugs Tell me one of your worst habits. Binge eating and drinking, excessive worrying, obsessing...  What’s a weird quirk you have that no one else you know do? I love reading the profiles on writeaprisoner.com, then googling the inmates’ names to find out the crime(s) they committed.  If you game, what type of headset do you use? What type of computer do you own, and do you like it? An Acer chromebook. I like it because it has a touchscreen and movable keyboard so I can use it as a tablet or laptop.  What’s the thing that annoys you the most? Bigotry of all kinds.  What brand of TV do you have? Samsung Are you excited for Christmas?  I’m excited to spend my first Christmas Eve/Christmas morning with Glenn and start creating new traditions  Tell me about your favorite vacation you’ve taken. All my favorite moments are at my family’s cottage in Canada. 

Tell me something cool about yourself. There’s not much about myself that I’d consider “cool...” Haha  Did/do you get good grades in school/college? I had exceptional grades and test scores in elementary school and was considered “gifted.” These alleged gifts kind of dwindled in middle school as I let myself get too distracted by personal/emotional/social problems. I got decent grades in high school (all As in subjects I enjoyed, Bs in the subjects I struggled with), but excelled in college and graduated Summa Cum Laude. So that’s my roundabout way of saying yes I did, just not always. 

What’s your ringtone on your phone? It is 2019 my dude...  What’s your favorite store to shop in? For clothes I like Express, Buckle or most department stores. Although I’ve been doing more online shopping than anything lately.  If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy and why? I’d pay off all my debts and then I’d book a trip around the world.  How long have you had a Bzoink account? What on God’s green earth is that...?

Ever been to Field of Screams? If so, what’s your favorite attraction? Again, what is that? Do you own a Polaroid camera? Nope  Do you have hardwood floor in your room or carpet? Carpet

It’s a Saturday night, what are you typically doing? Either out with friends or snuggled at home reading/watching a movie/drinking some wine.  Do you have a lot of friends or do you not have any at all? I have a lot, but only a select few that I hang out with regularly.  What’s your all time favorite movie and why? Legally Blonde, because I love the message and of course, the aesthetic. 

How many blankets do you sleep with at night? One or two  What’s the last TV show you watched? Did you enjoy it? I’m currently watching this ridiculous gift-wrapping competition and I’m laughing my head off at the absurdity of it all. (PS- for anyone reading this survey all the way through, I’m no longer at work. Yes, I’m taking this survey in two parts because I enjoy these questions so much! Do you prefer cable TV or do you use Netflix? Netflix & Hulu  What is your dream job and why? A writer/contributor to a magazine or website. I’d love the ability to write about topics that interest me for a living.  Do you think you would be a good therapist? No. I think I’m very empathetic, I’m a good listener and I give good advice (for the most part). But I’m a Type 4 which means I’m often too wrapped up in my own head. I wouldn’t have the emotional energy to be a therapist. 

What’s your favorite brand of clothing? Didn’t I already answer this? Did you like this survey? One of the best I’ve taken! Hence why I saved this draft to finish it hours after I started haha

[chocolateheal]

You Will Never Believe These Bizarre Truths Behind Dutch Abstract Expressionism | dutch abstract expressionism

On December 23, 1888, an agitated 35-five-year-old Dutch man angry up at a brothel in a bigoted boondocks in the south of France and presented his burst ear to a prostitute. This abominable bounded adventure accident would be absent in badge annal had it not been for the actuality that the man handing over the anatomy allotment was Vincent van Gogh, a painter whose art, best of it produced aural a distinct decade, helped created a new accent for about every 20th aeon movement in European painting.

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Today millions of tourists army to museums, bottleneck in advanced of van Goghs like The Starry Night (1889) and Sunflowers (1888). The art has been reproduced en masse, on posters, prints, calendars, key chains, tote bags, coffee mugs, umbrellas, bolt covers and alike bathing suits. Yet the artist’s struggles with brainy affliction in the aftermost year or so of his activity accept been abstract into cautionary tales about art, agriculture a baneful accepted allegory that artists are insane, antisocial, and self-destructive. He is a believing messianic adept in Vicente Milleni’s Lust for Activity (1956), an annoyed and adolescent advocate in Robert Altman’s Vincent and Theo (1990), and an institutionalized and atrophied victim in Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh (1991). Having beat van Gogh’s biography, filmmakers accept angry the art-as-madness advertising attack on to added artists’ lives, from Mr. Turner (2014) and Pollock (2000) to Basquiat  (1996), and Edvard Munch (1974). The bulletin — absolutely abrogating and absurdly reductive — is that artists are quasi-mystic misfits whose absorbing works were the byproduct of ailing souls. In accession to added stigmatizing brainy illness, these misrepresentations reinforce the lie that such illnesses bang painters in asymmetric numbers compared to the blow of the population. Armed with psychoanalytic access and cultural studies, curators, critics and academics accumulation on, framing an artist’s assignment in affected speculations about their abutting lives and abstruse agendas. This insulates both academe and accumulation ability from agreeable with art as circuitous and destructive forms of knowledge. Admire it, get its “messages,” but don’t booty art too seriously. In turn, basal attack from art like “creativity,” “imagination,” and “vision” get emptied of destructive meanings, appointed for TED Talks and business campaigns while bungling inventors and adventure capitalists become our modern-day Leonardo da Vincis. If the hijacking of van Gogh’s adventures started us bottomward this road, again revisiting van Gogh through the prism of anew appear books about his activity and aesthetics can blueprint a new beforehand against compassionate the achievements active beneath the myth.

After all “geniuses,” like “stars,” appear and go with every account cycle. What makes van Gogh abundant was an built-in mission he adopted, one that would analysis whether painting could aggrandize the absolute abnormality of acquaintance itself. Judicious, well-read, focused, able and unremitting, he abstruse and again abandoned abundant conventions in adjustment to breach bottomward the declared distinctions amid attributes and art, amid the apple as it is and the apple as it is painted. To this end, added radically than his appropriately accomplished and active Post-Impressionist peers, van Gogh undid continued captivated Western assumptions about spatiality, color, and composition. Dispensing with three-dimensionality and chiaroscuro, he adapted canvases into accepted fields of undiluted, acutely allegory colors and capricious densities of brushwork. Seemingly brusque and unrefined, his paintings helped beforehand absorption in art by absolute how an object’s capacity can angle abandoned as independent exemplifications of the picture’s whole, as if painting itself had acclimatized the ocular abracadabra of telescopes, microscopes and zoom lenses. In all these respects, van Gogh apparent and mapped out alien interrelationships amid cerebral abyss and aboveboard intimacy, adventurous blush and authentic spatiality that guided abundant of 20th aeon art, from Pablo Picasso’s bedfast planes of Cubism to Pierre Bonnard’s lushly black interiors and into the art scenes above the Atlantic, from Frida Kahlo’s high-keyed acid self-portraiture to Joan Mitchell’s agreeable Abstract Expressionist evocations of nature.   

Vincent Van Gogh came out of nowhere. Born in Zundert in The Netherlands in 1853, he was the earlier son of a caring, accusatory abbey in the Dutch Reformed Church and an appropriately careful and generally judgmental mother. To allay his parents, in his aboriginal 20s, he went to assignment for the all-embracing art banker Goupil & Cie. Goupil acquaint him aboriginal in The Hague, again in London, and, briefly, in Paris. Admitting alert by the ambit of European art he handled, the art-dealing career which so ill-fitted his adolescent brother Theo did not clothing his audacious temperament. Afterwards Vincent was laid off by Goupil he advised canon for a time, animate as an evangelical preacher. A churchgoer in England about October of 1876 would accept heard a attenuate Sunday address by van Gogh, a accent which he transcribed in a letter to Theo. In it he echoes a abiding burden amid Protestant evangelicals that defines animal beings as “pilgrims in the apple and strangers.” This formulation, common in his aboriginal letters, reflects a affectionate of aware abnegation that may eventually accept been his bond credo. On the one hand, the brusque byword “pilgrims and strangers,” enshrines a array of agreeable breach as actuality ancient to the accustomed apple and to humanity. But in its civil or existential associations, about which van Gogh generally ruminates, the conception levels chic hierarchies and incites acquaintance amid bodies and a alikeness amid altruism and the nonhuman world.

Ultimately, announcement Christianity to congregants ill-fitted van Gogh as ailing as had affairs added people’s art. Autograph in 1882, as he began cartoon in earnest, he assures Theo, “Though I am generally in the base of misery, there is still calmness, authentic accord and music axial me.” And, adverse to the again fashionable acceptance in abnormal inspiration, he defines art as a accommodating effort, trial-and-error, and, best interestingly, as an advancing act of nonconformity. “Art demands adamant work, assignment in animosity of aggregate and affiliated observation,” he tells Theo, abacus that, “by dogged, I beggarly in the aboriginal abode ceaseless labor, but additionally not abandoning one’s angle aloft the ascendancy of this actuality or that.” In his belletrist to Theo he names himself a “painter of barbarian life” mainly because he saw everyone, including himself, as peasants agronomics the apple as if it were a fief run by an absent overlord.

Once he absitively to accomplish art, he studied, drew and corrective laborers — diggers and sowers, miners and weavers. In this respect, he abstruse from amusing realists and annual illustrators while, unbeknownst to the adolescent van Gogh, the Impressionists in France were already remaking the rules for painting. For his part, as he began to acrylic he did so in apple tones and dim interiors brightened actuality and there by about aeriform light, and captivated what he witnessed as the alone archetype for allotment accountable matter. “ I see [potential] paintings and assets in the atomic cottages, the dirtiest corners,” he tells Theo, “And my apperception is apprenticed against these things with an alluring momentum.”

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This artful advance kicked into abounding accessory about the time he angry 30, an activism through art fueled by account amusing realists like Charles Dickens and Émile Zola and belief his admired painter, Jean-Francois Millet, as able-bodied as alteration Shakespeare, the Gospels, and Victor Hugo. Anew activated and bankrolled by Theo, he formulates beheld acumen as an interpersonal activating affiliated to drawing. Against his brother’s admonition and alarming his parents, he briefly aggregate a home with Clasina (Sien) Maria Hoornik, a abundant prostitute, all the while delving into mural drawing. “Picture me sitting at my attic window as aboriginal as 4:00 in the morning,” he writes to Theo, “studying the meadows & the carpenter’s backyard with my angle frame.” He was abiding that disciplines of abutting ascertainment and amusing accuracy would crop art cogitating of that diligence. But an autodidactic access would alone get him so far. He enrolled for a abbreviate time in the Art Academy in Brussels and apprenticed with two acknowledged artists — admired Dutch painter Willem Roelofs as able-bodied as his own additional cousin, Anton Mauve. But his time active with his brother Theo in Paris from backward 1886 to aboriginal 1888 would absolutely adapt his art and aftermath the Van Gogh we know.

In the French capital, the two bachelors resided aboriginal on the Rue de Laval afore affective to a bigger studio-friendly third-floor accommodation at 54 rue Lepic in Montmartre. The aloof republished A Memoir of Vincent van Gogh (Getty Publications, 2018) by Theo’s widow, Jo van-Gogh Bonger belletrist that Vincent and Theo argued often. Vincent implored his adolescent brother to abdicate Goupil and accessible his own gallery. In about-face Theo bristled at what he beheld as his earlier brother’s base housekeeping, poor hygiene, and accepted vehemence. Theo’s arrangement was pivotal. He knew the arch Impressionists and abounding beat artists. Added artists like Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Louis Anquetin befriended Vincent and encouraged a added beginning and freer attitude to authoritative pictures.

The best absolute access was the brusque beverage of Japanese art into Paris in the anatomy of ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock prints. As accurate in a contempo blockbuster exhibition captivated at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and in the anew appear Japanese Prints: The Accumulating of Vincent Van Gogh (Thames & Hudson & Van Gogh Museum 2018), these reproductions of Japanese art — alignment abundantly in affection — were fabricated accessible by the contempo aperture of Japan to the West. The cultural action over what the biographer and amphitheater administrator Jules Claretie labeled japanisme helped transform French art of that period, persuading accustomed artists like Camille Pissaro and advancing abstracts like Paul Gauguin to claiming the techniques and capacity as handled by Japanese painters like Hiroshige and Hokusai.

More acutely than best artists, van Gogh was bent up in this fascination. Partly acquisitive to accomplish money by affairs them, he bought “no beneath than 660 sheets” of Japanese art, mainly from banker Siegfried Bing, including reproductions of Japanese chirimen-e art — accepted in French as crépons — creped prints in which the artist’s cardboard was artificially manipulated to actualize a channelled apparent and a textile-like appearance. Admitting his attack to advertise his accumulating flopped, the prints he kept in his flat offered new abstruse strategies for mural painting, including agriculture out depicted altar in abnormal ways, experimenting with zooming and aeriform views, animate with aerial bound lines, and acceptance advancing structures to boss a picture’s foreground. His paintings began to affection brusque flattening effects, abundant bolder blush and schematized arrangements. In two paintings that archetype Japanese models, Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) (1887) and Courtesan (after [Keisai] Eisen) (1887), he extends the original’s aureate colors, august poses, and anfractuous apparel to the images and colors he added to the paintings’ absolute frames.

Other changes were added attenuate but far-reaching. He was decidedly fatigued to assertive Japanese genres like kacho-e, featuring birds and flowers, and bijin-ga, portraits of women and kabuki actors. These interests led to a about-face in how he approached realism. The accustomed apple charcoal a axial fascination. In presentation, attributes becomes an capricious brand animate with amoebic ornamentation. His delineation changes in a agnate manner. Van Gogh’s sitters, including himself, booty on a theatricality commonly associated with actors, priests, and courtesans.

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But this acceptance of Japanese techniques was not after struggle. Autograph to his adolescent Japanophile and abutting acquaintance Émile Bernard, he addendum that “the Japanese disregards reflection, agreement solid tints one beside the added — appropriate curve aboveboard appearance off movements or shapes.” Concision and succinctness, two Japanese artful ancestry he admired to adopt, did not appear easily. But aback it did, his painterly accent broadcast exponentially.

If Paris offered him an advancing cultural reeducation, it additionally aside him. van-Gogh Bonger belletrist that the gray burghal “did not agree” with Vincent and “overstrained his nerves.” He absitively to leave for the south. On the road, he envisioned himself as a Japanese monk, translating, in his mind, the brilliant expanses of rural France into a abstract Japan where, the painter believed, art “makes us acknowledgment to nature, admitting our apprenticeship and our assignment in a apple of convention.” The arcadian Japan alloyed him with optimism. In Self Account as a Bonze (1888), a painting he able to acquaintance Paul Gauguin, he alters his aspect to bout the face of a Japanese monk. He depicts himself continuing cocked with his beard shorn, his angular face fatigued and gaunt, concentrated and poised, his domed arch haloed in bright greens.

In accent and subject, van Gogh bankrupt with somber, salt-of-the-earth dejected to about-face against casual dramas of color, sunlight, arrant angularities, and abrupt collocations. He dispensed with the Western-derived address of point perspective. The result, as in Japanese paintings, is that any accustomed represented space, be it a awkward bedchamber or a across-the-board valley, about suggests its surrounding ambience alike admitting those elements abide in the viewer’s beheld imagination, above the picture’s frame. The artful agreeable seems to be beginning above its limits. German painter August Endell addendum that van Gogh “master[s] alike the boldest colour combination, [and] he finds the appropriate tones so assuredly that in animosity of the abundant outlines that for every added painter would breach the account apart, he achieves academic unity.”

Van Gogh evolves as a draughtsman, too. Fatigued to what academic Louis Van Tilborgh calls “the accounting vocabulary” of nanga —“Japanese ink paintings in the Chinese tradition”— his ardent accuracy meets a artful and assured elegance. His ancillary appearance Barn Owl (1887) diptych assets accompanying captures the bird of prey’s alarming aspect and its exotic, about doll-like otherworldliness. Similarly Giant Peacock Moth (1889, pictured below) describes the insect’s aspect and renders the contours and beautification on its wings with the accurateness of a milliner, while Three Cicadas (1889) looks like an analogy for a science chiral and a jeweler’s calligraphic diagram.

No best alone assuming nature, his art channels the abruptness inherent in apparent faces, altar and scenes, a accurate aberancy that puts the accustomed and the bogus on according footing. The paintings bottle a ad-lib achievement aural what is seen. In the abstracted account Père Tanguy (1887) housed at the Rodin Museum in Paris, the barbate Tanguy wears a blooming and chicken harbinger cap that assembly the colors of pastureland or sunflower fields; his dejected covering is black like a midday sky in aiguille sunshine; his heavy, aureate white easily are clasped, commutual a attentive pose.

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He abstracts with diagonals in Seascape abreast Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (1888) as the bound appears to angle from beefy yet collected blush fields above an ever-widening sky. In Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les Saintes (1888), anemic blooming bands associate with dejection and whites in the sky, ambience into abatement the boats’ different black masts that assume to bewitch abreast an aberrant waterline. The colors of the boats and sky recur as different figurations in the wind-driven sea and above bland sand. Meanwhile in the crumbling daylight, the cresting and breaking sea after-effects activity up appropriately capricious colors — greens, blues, whites — creating a affectionate of abatement activity amid and amid their angular motions. The bound amid sea and beach juts out and again aback recedes, not absolutely bisecting the account alike but abstinent a abiding or “correct” angle for the viewer.

Birds, flowers, and grass additionally more become capacity of all-embracing paintings in which an ambience of brusque boundless amazement saturates the ordinary. In Ears of Wheat (1890) the plants resemble a torrential blooming avalanche and the all-encompassing farmland in The Sower (1888, pictured abutting page) mimics painting itself as the sun, tree, farmer, and fields compose themselves into yellow, green, blues, and blush vertices and horizontals.

As he anesthetized from backbone to backbone in the French countryside, his autograph narrates a bit-by-bit abstract transformation so austere that alike the best abrupt capacity booty on autobiographical overtones. An admiration to Japanese adept Utagawa Kunisada’s yields van Gogh’s still-life A Crab on Its Aback (1888), a asperous hewn tour-de-force. The crustacean’s chaotic body, portioned into amaranthine browns and reds, seems captivated and buoyed by the acreage of greens about it. Accustomed how physically absorbed the artisan is during his  “Japanese” crusade in the blooming fields of southern France, Crab on Its Back, ability best be apprehend as a buried self-portrait. The crab’s agitated pose, absolute its underbelly, marks a abandoned exposure, a nakedness, that van Gogh is tracking in his belletrist to Theo as art and attributes somehow assemble in this new way of thinking. “I am in Japan here,” he writes, anecdotic the Japanese advancing “in attributes as if they themselves were flowers, about a accurate religion.” For van Gogh, “Japan” agency a acute anatomy of alertness in which the discoveries of art and the things in the accustomed apple interpenetrate anniversary other. “One cannot abstraction Japanese art,” he writes to Theo, “without acceptable merrier and happier and we should about-face aback to attributes in animosity of our apprenticeship and our assignment in a accepted world.” He askance describes actuality at a capital that was to booty his art to new levels and to claiming what his apperception and anatomy could abide in adjustment to assassinate the mission. His above gloomier worldviews about breach and abreast fade. Still, the appearance in his apparent absoluteness are both “far and near.” He hopes to accomplish attributes and animal activity attending like what he thinks they absolutely are, namely, abutting with art, not a accountable or commodity of art. “Everything there [in Arles] is small, the gardens, the fields, the gardens, the trees, alike those mountains, as in assertive Japanese landscapes.”

If van Gogh’s life-as-art adage were to be accurate absolute by his painting, then, he envisions old barriers amid accustomed activity and artful acquaintance will abatement away, for good. Painting was now an exercise in adumbration and revolution, what he calls a “new religion,” to end animal estrangement. Anybody will become artists accord in this liberation.

Tim Keane teaches artful autograph and arcane addition at Borough of Manhattan Community College, Burghal University of New York City. Apprehend Allotment 2 of this commodity in the Winter 2018 affair of Utne Reader.

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How a Tiny Finance Startup Dethroned Fortune 500 Giants in Google Search

In 2009, most people would have called Tim Chen, the founder of Nerdwallet, crazy for even trying to take on the titans of the credit card industry. As the only employee at his company, that also had no funding, how could he possibly manage to garner the attention of consumers when his competition consisted of companies with billions of dollars at their disposal?

Within seven years, though, his company grew to be worth $500 million and his website, Nerdwallet.com, attracts millions of visitors per month who look for credit card information and personal finance-related content.

How was he able to accomplish such an incredible feat? The short answer? Data-driven content marketing. This “David vs. Goliath” story may sound like a silicon valley fluke, but Nerdwallet’s content-first strategy has been replicated by other small companies in a variety of verticals, helping them achieve stunning success.

Whether it’s personal finance, home security, college admissions, student loans, travel, or any other industry, incumbents are slowly seeing one of their most valuable channels -- organic search -- getting taken over by these unexpected and new content players as they deliver valuable information through Google search and accumulate domain authority.

This article will investigate the specific content marketing strategy Nerdwallet used to take on the industry titans. Specifically, we’ll look at two aspects of this strategy:

First, we’ll look at how Nerdwallet leveraged content to attract press attention and, in turn, large volumes of authoritative links.

Second, we’ll look at how much content Nerdwallet produced and the strategies they used to make sure their content was actually valuable to searchers and prospects.

As a result, leveraging this strategy has allowed Nerdwallet to do something most would have predicted to be impossible.

Nerdwallet: From $0 to $500 million in 7 years

The credit card space has long been dominated by the major providers of credit cards themselves, like Capital One, Discover, Wells Fargo, Chase, and Bank of America.

However, in recent years, several new challengers have taken on these titans, snapping up the majority of the organic search market share of some of the world’s biggest brands.

For instance, if you search for nearly any credit card related query -- especially high-intent searches -- you’ll notice that more than half of the top 20 results are not credit card providers, Instead, they’re companies like, Nerdwallet.com, Wallethub.com, CreditCards.com, Credit.com, Valuepenguin.com, and Thepointsguy.com.

These sites are “information providers.” They make money as middlemen, leveraging affiliate marketing to earn a commission when people click through to their site and apply for credit cards with banks.

Nerdwallet is one of the best examples of an information provider who took over the organic search space in the credit card industry.

Founded in 2009 as a bootstrapped startup, Nerdwallet has grown at an exponential pace, from 283 users per month in 2009 to 2.2 million users per month in 2014, plus many more today.

Picture Credit: SlideShare

After some early struggles to get any traction for Nerdwallet, founder Tim Chen realized organic search was the only customer acquisition channel that had enough volume to boost his site’s awareness and eventually compete with the big players in the space. He also knew it was the only channel that could be bootstrapped and grow incrementally. With this singular focus, Tim got to work. Below is a slide from a talk about his realization about organic search's potential and how he became laser-focused on content as his vehicle for success.

As Tim outlines, Nerdwallet’s main strategy had a two-pronged approach.

Create large volumes of valuable content

Use content to attract large volumes of authoritative backlinks

Let’s take a look at how this strategy progressed.

Creating Quality Content

Attracting organic search traffic relies first and foremost on creating high-quality content that fits search queries. Generally, the more high-quality content you publish, the more opportunities there are to rank for keywords.

Tim knew this and made sure it was a core pillar of his strategy. So early on, he set a goal of creating 500 pieces of quality content per month. This was certainly a tall order, but it was necessary if he wanted to take on the entrenched behemoths in his industry.

By looking at the Archive.org view of Nerwallet's pages over time, we can see that Tim stuck to his plan, producing up to 500 pieces of content per month between 2011-2012, and then ramping up his volume and peaking at as many as a few thousand new pieces of content per month in 2014 and 2015.

To drive organic growth, Tim needed to avoid Google’s algorithm penalties, so it’s important to note that quality was pivotal for his success. Each piece of content Tim created needed to provide as much or more value than the content currently ranking for the keywords and themes he was planning to cover.

As of today, Nerdwallet has more than 36,000 indexed pages, giving them the chance to rank for an enormous amount of longtail keywords and capture a disproportionate percentage of the search sphere for all things personal finance and credit cards. And it works.

Nerdwallet ranks for nearly three times as many keywords as their closest bank competitor. When you consider that 30-50% of these banks’ organic search traffic is brand-related keyword searches, you start to realize just how far ahead Nerdwallet has outpaced their competitors.

The number of keywords Nerdwallet and Big Banks rank for:

Nerdwallet: 1.7M

Bank of America: 621k

Wells Fargo: 594k

Chase: 428k

Capital One: 327k

Discover: 234k

Citibank: 44k

Building Quality Links

For Nerdwallet, creating a high volume of great content over the past seven years was only possible if they were sure the content they produced would eventually rank at the top of SERPs.

Surely, the vast amount of content they produced helped them build domain authority -- a lot of it could be considered a resource, and they naturally earned links and authority over time.

But their success with organic search can mostly be attributed to creating and promoting quality content with a specific goal and mission in mind: earning a large number of links from high authority publishers and their syndication networks.

Data-Driven Stories + Good Design + High-Touch Outreach = Press, Links, and Improved Ranking Ability

To give you a solid understanding of just how important creating data-driven, newsworthy stories was for Nerdwallet, take a look at the chart below.

We used Media Cloud to log Nerdwallet’s brand mentions over time. Above, you can see that Nerdwallet’s data-driven content stories received more press mentions than Capital One did for a period of time.

This is an incredible feat, considering the number of resources Capital One has at their fingertips and the fact that any financial announcement from Capital One is virtually guaranteed to generate press.

What Types of Content Helped Nerdwallet Build So Many High-Authority Links?

The main reason why Nerdwallet’s content attracted a significant number of Unique Linking Domains or ULDs that had high-authority link equity is because their content was rooted in data. Specifically, data analyzed by Nerdwallet themselves or existing authoritative government data they synthesized. Using this data, they created newsworthy content that fell into several categories. “State of” studies, location studies, and tools or calculators leveraging existing or new data sets have been their bread and butter.

Together, this content is responsible for a huge majority of their high authority backlinks. Some of the best examples of their newsworthy content are provided below:

Data-Driven Studies

Credit Card Household Debt study -- 448 ULDs

Links from: yahoo.com, cnn.com, forbes.com, washingtonpost.com, cbsnews.com, bloomberg.com, businessinsider.com, nbcnews.com, time.com, columbia.edu, cnbc.com, inc.com, fortune.com, marketwatch.com, lifehacker.com, entrepreneur.com, salon.com, fool.com.

New Grad Retirement Report -- 31 ULDs

Links from: usatoday.com, investopedia.com, dailydot.com, time.com, cnbc.com.

Millenials and Home Buying study -- 11 ULDs

Links from: theguardian.com, newsweek.com, nasdaq.com, philly.com, mic.com, brit.co.

Location Studies

America’s Most Innovative Tech Hubs -- 21 ULDs

Links from: phys.org, theconversation.com, shroders.com, bigml.com, cityam.com.

Wage Gaps for Women In Different States -- 5 ULDs

Links from: glamour.com, brit.com, hellogiggles.com, teamster.org.

Resource Tools and Calculators

Total Cost of Owning a Car -- 104 ULDs

Links from: cbsnews.com, ycombinator.com, herokuapp.com, opendemocracy.net, bigthink.com, lifehacker.com.

Cost of Living Calculator -- 47 ULDs

Links from: fool.com, mic.com, usatoday.com, bangordailynews.com, dozens of industry publications.

The chart below is a visualization of the backlinks that Nerdwallet earned over time. Their data-driven content strategy, paired with their digital public relations strategy, is the reason they were able to consistently attract a large number of backlinks.

What We Can Learn From Nerdwallet about Ranking on Google and Organic Search

With a dual approach of creating massive amounts of quality, data-driven content and attracting valuable press mentions, Nerdwallet was able to outpace and overtake all of the incumbents in their industry over a relatively short period of time.

The rapid rise of Nerdwallet is a testament to considering a new, guided approach to SEO. Through the process of creating high-quality, data-driven content and building links with this newsworthy content, Nerdwallet was able to scurry up the digital ranks.

Focusing on high volume and high quality, Nerdwallet set a new standard for digital marketers. Their results solidified the importance of creating high-quality content and intentional link-building to strengthen your brand and impact.

By committing to this strategy, Tim Chen discovered the key to his success was two-pronged: create large volumes of valuable content and leverage it to earn large volumes of authoritative links. This ultimately allowed his tiny startup, Nerwallet, to compete with and eventually overtake the credit card industry’s behemoths.