#this one had a little mixed quality which is a little eek

[kb1301]

A continuation of a previous post of mine, but this time, the cutscenes involve my Titan, Tatag!

Other gifsets:

Maximus-12 (my Warlock)

[sour--strawberries]

Some much needed relaxation

this had the perfect timing and was a lovely gift! hope it will make you all as happy and relaxed as it made me! thank you, my villainous friend! 

————-

Some much needed relaxation by Professor Rattigan

Steve woke up only to find that he was alone in bed. He sat up and looked around, but there was no trace of his lover.

Did he sneak into the workshop again late at night and fell asleep on his desk, coffee and oil spilled all over the place and mixed together so no one could tell the difference? At least Steve couldn’t anymore; the scents of black coffee and oil were linked in his mind since he and Tony started dating.

Steve rubbed his eyes, sat up and decided to look for his boyfriend.

To his surprise, Tony was sitting on a chair, his tablet in his hands, eyes glued to the screen. His face had an unhealthy shade of grey and dark circles were forming under his eyes.

There were some changes going on within Stark Industries and those required Tony’s full attention. Which meant that he wouldn’t sleep much and not take proper care of himself since he had a lot of things on his mind besides all of the company stuff anyway.

Steve knew those states of overthinking and stressing over trying to please everyone and solve problems that would come non-stop every day (and also apparently every night).

He could understand what Tony was going through. Taking care of everything and wanting to make everyone else’s jobs easier was one of Tony’s greatest qualities, but also one that could easily take him to really bad states of exhaustion.

“Good morning, love. Is everything okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, s’fine.”

Tony wasn’t even looking up or listening to what Steve was saying, he simply heard a voice and responded in tired murmurs fading away in a quiet yawn.

“Babe, you really need to at least take short breaks in between all of it. Did you even drink something before you started working?”

“Sure, work, almost done, give me a minute”

Steve sighed and kneeled down in front of Tony. He gently placed his hands on Tony’s thighs.

“Honey, look at me”

Tony blinked in confusion and a little irritation and lowered his tablet. Only to look into two big, blue, worried eyes.

“Please, put it away for a while. I make breakfast and afterwards, we can lay down together for a bit, what do you think?”

“Uh, breakfast… Maybe, maybe coffee…”

Steve smiled.

“Yes, I’ll make you coffee as well. And fried eggs and bacon or anything you want, just tell me”

Tony’s eyes sparkled a little bit while he looked in the distance, thinking of all the glorious food choices he had right now. Steve knew that look very well and was happy that his strategy seemed to work.

He was about to get up, but felt Tony holding him back by placing his hands on his.

“Steeeve…”

“Yeees?”

“Cuddle”

Steve rolled his eyes, but happily did what his tired lover asked for. He pulled him in for a tight hug and soothingly rubbed his back.

Tony was too exhausted to even lift his arms, so he just rested his head on Steve’s shoulder and leaned into him.

Steve hummed a little and almost unconsciously his hands slid down to Tony’s sides to softly knead them.

Tony instantly started giggling and squirming a little, but by no means trying to get away from it. He lifted his arms, placed his hands on Steve’s lower back and leaned back to pull his soldier on top of him. The chair he was sitting on would allow him a half-lying position and he knew Steve wouldn’t be able to resist if Tony presented himself like that.

Steve pulled back a little to look at his lover and saw an adorable smile that encouraged him to pull up Tony’s shirt.

He caressed his boyfriend’s belly with his fingertips and enjoyed watching the muscles twitch a little under his touch. He started using both hands and scribbling his fingers on the soft skin, loving the feel of it so much.

Tony smiled sweetly and giggled and felt so good. It wasn’t too much to take, just the right amount to make him turn into a puddle and forget everything else besides the wonderful feeling of affection and relaxation. He closed his eyes, let his arms dangle off the sides of the chair, arching his back a little, craving more of it and never wanting it to stop.

Until he felt Steve suddenly moving and before he had any time to react Steve pressed his lips right onto his tummy and blew one raspberry after another.

The quiet giggles were gone immediately, suddenly wide awake, Tony howled with laughter; he tried to bring his arms up, but they felt too heavy and so he was lying there, absolutely defenseless against the loving attack. Not that he exactly minded.

“Oh gosh, Steve, please stop!”

He barely managed to get those words out, but as soon as he said them, his lover looked up and showed him a cheeky smile.

“Sorry babe, I was afraid you would fall asleep and this chair is not good for your back. Besides you didn’t have breakfast yet, we have to take care of that first”

“Oh yes, because it’s only my health you’re concerned about”

Steve chuckled. If Tony was able to sass him everything was fine.

“If I were you I would be careful what I say; you’re not in the position to give me that attitude”

Steve leaned down again, puffing his cheeks. Tony eeked and covered his belly with his hands and shirt.

“Okay, okay, I yield”

“Good boy”

Steve placed a soft kiss on Tony’s lips and then helped him get up.

“So, let’s go to the kitchen”

“Steve?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you. I love you”

“No problem. I love you too”

Tony’s tablet, which in the whole process must have slipped off the chair, was on the floor and was showing incoming messages. But for now Tony couldn’t care less, walking to the kitchen hand in hand with his beloved soldier.

[lovefromruthie]

S’mores Brownies

Hi guys!

Eeks, how is it Boxing Day! I hope you have enjoyed all the Christmas build up and had a wonderful Christmas Day. It is always so busy but I love it all. Time with family, the cakes and food; of course the church carol service which is great for pointing me back to who it is all about!

I had wanted to post this recipe a few days earlier but there wasn't time and I have done a little more tweaking since to this recipe...read on! Although Christmas Day is over, this recipe is a fab one to have to bring along as you visit friends and family between Christmas and the New Year. Actually, it's great for any time of the year because who could down....S'mores Brownies!!

The idea for these came around when I was thinking of what to bake  for our church Carol service. I had thought about brownies but wanted them with a festive twist. The obvious ones that came to mind were chocolate orange or peppermint but these didn't really float my boat. They're traditional festive flavours but they can be quite polarising I think? My mind turned to the cake I'm planning for my mum's birthday cake in a few weeks time (it has a slightly similar theme to these-ish).  And that's when it hit me...s'mores brownies!

What are they? It's a lightly spiced buttery biscuit base, a fudgey brownie topped with a soft, fluffy mallow which sort of tastes a bit like what you'd get inside of a Walnut Whip. Yum. It's like eating the clouds of your dreams :P But just to top this off, the fluffy meringue is then gently toasted with the blowtorch. You can also use a grill but watch super carefully! Freshly eating the mallow after it has just been toasted is the best.thing.ever! Need I say s'more?

Being a vegetarian and well, not living in America has not given me much opportunity to have a s'more so I did a little research on them. S'mores are chocolate and a marshmallow sandiches between a graham cracker then toasted. We can't buy these biscuits in ol' Yorkshire so there's a bit of extra thought that's gone into the base of these brownies. It's a mix of digestives, gingernut biscuits (just a ginger crunchy biscuit), a teaspoon of cinnamon. They are grinded - but not super fine - and then mixed into some melted butter and honey.

I'm excited to share this recipe because I am also giving you my brownie recipe! I tweaked this recipe slightly for these and I love the changes made so I think I will make this permanent. I should dedicate a post to brownies at some point (up the recipe by 25% to get the full brownie if doing just these). It is dense, rich, fudgey truffle like but no so soft that it begins to lose its shape. I needed it to be quite firm to support all the cloud like mallow topping! However, I didn't want to compromise in the texture too much and get a dry, cake like brownie. There's always two types of brownies - the fudgey ones or the cake ones. Seriously though, who would ever prefer the cake ones?!

This brings me on to the topping. I wouldn't do marshmallows because they contain gelatin. There are three types of meringue - French, Italian and Swiss. French is a no no for this since it isn't cooked, it's not stable enough and there would be a little leakage after a while. Italian would work for this but this but I prefer Swiss. It can take a little while to make but it is my favourite of the three. The egg whites and sugar are gently heated reaching to 71.2 degrees Celsius so that the meringue is safe to eat and it also means that there will be no grains of sugar. As I do with my Swiss Meringue Buttercream LINK, for my first attempt, I did a 1:2 ratio of egg whites to sugar. I prepped it all in the morning before serving at church in the evening. These were the first of my baked goodie to go. I think they just look so eye catching and appeal to adults and children.

I actually forgot to try a piece for myself as I was so busy with the rehearsal so Nick quickly grabbed a piece. It was good but I felt I could make the topping better. It was very thick and marshmallow like but was a kind of a plain sweetness. I decided to cut down the sugar a little bit - not 175% of the weight of egg whites. I also switched to golden caster sugar to give a slight buttery, caramel flavour. Another little tip is to use a medium pan, not a small pan but making sure there is a enough space between the bowl and water as you heat up the meringue. These changes helped produce a lighter, fluffier topping and gave a little more depth to its flavour. What I would love to try out next time is to toast the golden caster sugar beforehand to add to the toastiness and richer caramel flavour.

The photo below is using the grill and caster sugar...piled with lots of fluffy goodness! 

Thought I’d try taking a different photo but I just felt like a poser and ended up laughing! 

Need I say s'more?! ;) I really hope you make these and enjoy them with your friend and family. As always, if you want to post or share these, please refer to my blog.

Before I finish, I will quickly say this. Christmas for me is all about the birth of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus. Sometimes when Christmas Day is over all the build up can feel somewhat of a let down. But the hope and joy that Jesus brings us never fades!

 Love from Ruthie x

Biscuit base:

175g digestives

175g gingernut biscuits

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

90g butter

3 tablespoons of clear honey

Brownies:

128g butter

300g dark quality chocolate (I use Green & Blacks 70%), chopped

3 large eggs

300g light brown sugar

75g plain flour

25g cocoa powder (I use Green & Blacks, NOT hot chocolate powder)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Swiss Meringue Mallow Topping

5 egg whites

Golden Caster sugar - 175% weight of the whites (i.e approx 185g egg whites, 324g sugar)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Optional pinch of cream of tartar

Recipe:

1. First make the biscuit base. Pre-heat the oven to 160oC. Melt the butter and honey in a medium pan. Pulse the biscuits and cinnamon until coarse crumbs (you don't want it super fine). Mix the biscuits into the butter/honey and press into a lined 9 x 13 inch tray-bake tin. Use the bottom of a wide glass to help press in and level the biscuit base.  Bake for 8 minutes.

2. Make the brownie. In a small pan, melt the butter. Once melted, remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir in until the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth, dark, glossy mix. Turn the oven up to 175oC.

3. Whisk the sugar and eggs on a high speed until pale, frothy and doubled in volume.

4. With the whisk attachment on medium, slowly pour in the cooled chocolate mix.

5. Sieve together the flour and cocoa powder and put into brownie. Fold, using a spatula. Do this gently but always check thoroughly as you do not want a pocket of flour!

6. Pour onto the biscuit/tray and gently level out. Bake for 22 minutes. It will be slightly firm on top and have a little crinkle layer.

7. Keep the brownie in the tin until cool and then allow to cool completely on a cooling tray.

8. Make the mallow topping: fill a medium pan with up to about an inch of water. Place sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar (optional) into a grease free large glass or metal bowl and place on top of pan. Gently heat until it reaches 71.2 degree Celsius whilst continuously gently whisking.

9. Pour into your stand mixer and whisk on a high speed. The bowl should cool, but doesn't need to be completely cool. Whisk until stiff peaks, look for the bird peak. Another clue is you will see how the meringue 'climbs up' the side of the bowl and this will then stop getting any higher. Quickly add in the vanilla.

10. Dollop the meringue onto the brownie, using a pallet knife drag the mix in directions so that there are little peaks. Then for the fun part - use the blowtorch!! You could also use the grill but watch it very carefully.

It is absolutely gorgeous when you have just used the blowtorch, or even from the grill and it is slightly warm. You can keep the brownies in an airtight container to eat during the rest of the day and will also keep until the following day. Enjoy!

[naokimizutani-blog]

My Experiences, Perspective, My Why, My Vision, Point Of View On the World, And What I Believe In...

Hey guys. This is my first blog, so some of you might need a little background story.

I’m currently living in Tokyo with my wife and cat. I teach Transcendental Meditation and living a comfortable life here. It wasn’t always this way, as I’ve had to find my purpose, persevere and overcome my lack of patience…which I’m still working on.

I was born and raised in downtown Los Angeles. Some people say they’re born in a “big city” when they’re actually born in the outskirts “nearby.” I was born in the middle of LA in Korea Town. Not the best of places, but it’s where my parents started when they immigrated from Japan with only a dream and drive to succeed, and eventually raised a family with three kids, a cat and a dog. 

I never thought of myself as a minority, since I didn’t understand that there was even a majority. People were always people to me.

At home, my parents would speak Japanese. My father was from Kagoshima, Kyushu and my mother was from Osaka near Tennnoji. Luckily, I was placed in an environment where I didn’t have a lot of Japanese friends, so outside of the house, I spoke “SoCal” English. I write “SoCal” because later on, when I moved states for college, I found out the rest of America, or even the world, doesn’t speak the same laid back, “nah-man-everything’s-coo” English I spoke back in my hometown.

It also took me 25 years to realize that the Japanese I spoke at home was NOT the Japanese spoken by most people in Japan either. When I first came to Tokyo and heard formal Japanese (“keigo”), I had no clue what was being said. The clerk at the cash register would always look at me funny because I looked Japanese but couldn’t speak it fluently, which is a thing I sometimes still struggle with today. I probably come off as a Korean student who studies Japanese. These days, it seems the less I speak and just do subtle gestures combined with perfectly timed words, the more I fit right in.

Dialects are a real strange thing. I mean, can you imagine? What if you were born in an area with a specific dialect, and you moved out of your hometown only to realize that your dialect made you sound unintelligent to most people. Luckily the dialects I landed with weren’t so bad, but just a food for thought for those of you raising your children.

My parents were natural entrepreneurs. My dad owned an electronic store in Osaka, which is where he met my mother. (A really cute and funny story there that I’ll save for another blog.) It was during the economic bubble in Japan, so it was a good time to open up shop. He then sold it, followed his dreams, and flew to Los Angeles. My mother followed him to America a year later, and they eventually opened up a Japanese restaurant in Cypress, Orange County.

For all of my childhood, from preschool to high school, my parents were running their restaurant business. During my elementary school years, I’d go there after school and hang out in the back room until my mom finished work. I remember there was always a lot of customers. It was probably the fact that no one else in the area offered teriyaki bowls, sushi, udon noodles, yakisoba or chicken karaage. All I’ll say is that the food at home was ALWAYS good. :)

I admired the culture they created with their customers. Everyone seemed to know my parents by name, and even the police and fire fighters would come in and high-five me.

The only time I got in trouble for being there was when I got bored waiting and stuck my hand in a mountain of rice grains. It felt pretty amazing, but I learned never to mess with quality assurance when a customer witnessed me and my mom brought her scolding thunder.

My mother hardly speaks English, even today, and she claims you only need two things to survive in another country. A smile and “thank you.” I guess that’s why I naturally always smile and say thank you.

My parents did a pretty good job in keeping all three kids out of trouble. They kept us busy. Besides regular school, I trained in a basketball league 3-5 days a week with a weekend game. It wasn’t the league for aspiring Michael Jordan’s and Kobe Bryant’s, but the Asian one. I seriously thought I was pretty good at basketball until I met guys twice my size in Jr. High and High School that easily swatted my threes and dunked over my low defensive stance.

You know that feeling when you train every day and night, even though the lights are out at the park, trying to perfect your moves and shots for 10 years, only to find out you were living in a small bubble and there were guys with better genetics and more talent than you? It’s basically what happened to me with karate, piano, and golf as well, even though I won a lot of competitions, received awards, and featured in local newspapers…in my small bubble.

Basketball and karate brings a lot of good memories, though. It wasn’t winning the competitions and being the best that I enjoyed. It was the process of improving myself and enjoying the community.

My Jr. High and High School years were colored with hip hop, breakdancing and DJing. The Fugees, Tribe Called Quest, Tupac, Ice Cube, Rakim, KRS One, EPMD, Wu Tang, Biggie, DJ Qbert, Mix Master Mike, come to mind. It was always for fun, and my homiez always knew how to have a good time. After school, I’d swim at my friend’s pool, go snowboarding, or have bonfires at the beach. Life was good in the SoCal way.

Since my parents were also successful in network marketing as a side business, I remember being taken to large mansions with 13 rooms overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was sitting in on meetings and events like these where I learned that business was all about building a community, and financial success was just an outcome. It seemed like the business part was only an excuse to get together because 80-90% of the conversation was about family and kids.

My dad took the family on a local trip every weekend, we had a family trip multiple times a year, and visited our relatives in Japan once a year up until I was in high school.

My parents wanted all three kids to at least be able to understand Japanese and speak to our grandparents, so on top of going to weekday school and all the extra curricular activity, we went to Japanese school on Saturdays.

Boy, did I hate it. It wasn’t that it was hard or difficult. I just really didn’t like the mentality and culture at the Japanese school. Being raised in an American culture, especially in the “sunshine” culture of LA where you’re free to express yourself, going to Japanese school felt like the cringe most people feel when they hear about what’s going on in North Korea. Rigid, so many rules, and very top-down hierarchy. Eek.

It made me appreciate the American culture even more. I excelled in American school, but never did my homework for my Japanese school. I made a ton of friends during the weekdays, but got in a fight every Saturday. It was two opposite worlds, and it was stressful. I think I took out all my aggression and frustration in sports and recreation.

Then, the next day of the week were the peaceful days at Sunday school. That’s where I gained exposure to profound questions to life. It naturally made me think deeply, and put the small things into perspective. It set the foundation, the “thesis” for the direction in my life.

College felt sudden to me. I wasn’t prepared AT ALL. My parents were immigrants, so they didn’t know what to do or how to prepare. With my so-so grades, I cruised right into San Diego State University and that’s when I found out college was about drinking and partying. There was literally a free shuttle bus that would take students from college campus to Tijuana to go party. It all felt lame to me, so my attention went inwards to search for truth and what’s real. It made me ask bigger questions and initiated my soul searching.

I ended up transferring to a private college that specialized in traditional oriental medicine. It was my first exposure to acupuncture, herbs and hippies! I was fascinated because it was a new world to me and off the beaten path. After getting certified as a therapist, I continued my soul searching while attending community college.

During that time, one book that grabbed my attention was the “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda. I visited the Self-Realization Fellowship temples, participated in some classes, and learned some meditation techniques. The Eastern traditions were drawing me closer and closer, and I became fascinated with ancient Vedic knowledge.

One day, somewhere in Pasadena, I was walking home from a rock concert featuring Yellowcard, and saw a poster for the preview of “What The Bleep Do We Know” at a local bookstore. I was fascinated by the concept of quantum physics, mind over matter, and the law of attraction. To be honest, a lot of the speakers seemed too “out there” for my taste, but a Harvard professor caught my attention - Dr. John Hagelin.

I found he was a faculty member of a little known college in the middle of Iowa, called Maharishi University of Management (MUM). I searched for their website, and felt goosebumps. My gut feeling was telling me to go, so I convinced my dad to visit with me and I ended up becoming a student within a few months.

MUM was in a small town located in Fairfield, Iowa. The first reaction from my older sister, Jenny, was “Why are you going to Ohio?” It made me laugh, but I honestly didn’t have a rational, logical reasoning. I just had an intuition.

At MUM, I learned Transcendental Meditation, meditated twice a day with thousands of students, professors and people from many different countries. It was the world I started to glimpse at the oriental medicine school, but multiplied by a thousand.

Fairfield is a town of 10,000 people, where the majority of residents are health conscious artists, entrepreneurs and business owners. Those 5 years taught me what was possible on a community level if enough people agreed to a common lifestyle. My perspective of the world went from a dark, violent world, to a stress-free, peace-loving one.

I majored in Environmental Science, and minored in Vedic Science. Then, my last year was focused on mathematics and physics. I ended up being the assistant for Dr. John Hagelin’s first-year physics course, which was a crash course on fundamental physics and quantum physics.

I then found an opportunity to go to the Maharishi European Research University (MERU) in Vlodrop, Holland. Let me tell you, the feeling of the place made it seem like it was a different world. The closest thing I can relate it to is the Jedi counsel in Star Wars. Yoda was like the TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the Jedi masters were like the many leaders from various countries. Some were from countries I probably wouldn’t be able to point out on a map even if my life depended on it. Kyrgyzstan, Brunei, or Malta anyone? MERU was like an extension of Fairfield, but more organized with a bit more of a corporate feeling to it. Kind of like a miniature United Nations, but without all the greed and corruption. After all, it was the headquarters for the global TM organization.

I was at MERU when Maharishi passed away, and suddenly flew over to India to attend the grand ceremony. Yes, India. Who would have ever thought I would end up in India? It was a major culture shock. My heart and mind were not prepared for the trip. I stayed close with a few friends I made at MERU who became some of my most cherished friends even today.

We backpacked it through rickshaws and cows, hopping on trains, and spending the night at one-star hotels. There’s a reason why people who have gone to India bond instantly. It’s because they’ve experienced something most people have never seen. A few places we visited: New Delhi, Allahabad, Varanasi, Rishikesh, Himalayan villages and a random city in Jabalpur, where we visited palm leaf astrologists, called Brighu Pandits.

After 90 days of travel, spiritual growth, and stomach problems, we said farewell and some of us flew to Phuket, Thailand. It seemed like paradise with coconuts, durian and white sand beaches.

Life took a 360 turn around after my trip, though, when I got back home to my parents place. I was 25, and received a phone call to be invited to help with educational conferences in Japan for the summer. The only reason I was invited was because I graduated from MUM, was Japanese, and made a connection at MERU. I helped set up conferences in Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, which had some really high profile people.

Remember how I didn’t enjoy my Japanese school? It was basically the same situation, but worse. Go figure! I was too independent minded. I spoke when I wasn’t supposed to. Everything was backwards for me, and I must have upset a lot of “seniors” because I disturbed their way of doing things.

During the storm of cultural clash, I somehow met my wife, Yoko. There were three times in my life when I had a gut feeling of assurance. The first time was finding MUM. The second time was becoming an instructor of TM. The third was finding my wife. I’ve heard when the emotion and intellect integrate, there is a knowingness. It’s called intuition. It’s what I’ve based my life decisions on, and it hasn’t seemed to fail me. (Knock on wood)

From that moment on, my life was spun around, and I ended up marrying Yoko in less than a year of knowing each other. I began living in Japan without any plans or preparation, and really struggled to make ends meet at first. While gaining practical experience in life, such as paying the bills, working, and building a comfortable home, I simultaneously began to meet a lot of clairvoyants and clairaudients. The “SoCal” part of me would say “get-outta-here” but it’s just a normal day for me now. I don’t know why or how I meet them, but it’s just a reoccurring pattern. Must be some kind of pattern in nature.

Being in Japan, for me, has been a process of integrating my heart and mind, the left and right brain. I’ve been to high-end business seminars and personal development seminars. I’ve taught English for GABA, and rated with 5-stars at their Shinagawa office. I worked for a moving company, organic market, a farm, and as an international salesperson for a prototype car manufacturer. I don’t know what happened to all the samurais in Japan, but I think many of their offsprings work in the auto industry now. There’s a reason why Japan makes some of the best cars and technology in the world. There is a culture of being very organized, systematic and detail oriented.

After overworking, nearly breaking my back and having internal breakdowns from losing the "American” part of me, my wife and I had an intuition to become certified TM instructors and we both took a leap of faith. It was five and a half months of intensive meditation, training and bliss.

When Yoko and I graduated, we were ready to take on the world. We felt refreshed, filled with optimism and enthusiasm. Out of the group of teachers who graduated with us, we were the first to open our TM center in Akasaka. From a national average of 3 to 5 clients per month, we had 30 to 50 people sign up starting the first month. We already had a network of friends and clients who trusted us, and we used all our previous experience and knowledge about business to really make it a success. We soon became the most successful instructors in Japan, and became one of the highest performing teachers in the world.

No one grows with easy growth. All successful entrepreneurs experience a “punch in the face” that made them evolve and improve. I’ve experienced a fair share of my own, which had to do with a cloud of jealousy that overshadowed the blue sky above us and someone decided to close our center and take us off the map. It was one of those Japanese ninja tactics. I never received a clear answer as to what happened, but I can guess why. It’s one of those things in life you couldn’t do anything about, and it wasn’t worth fighting about. I decided to suck it up and move on.

We eventually managed to establish an independent TM organization in Japan with the approval from the international organization, and opened up our new TM center in Shinjuku, Japan, which is our current location. In the first 3 years, thousands of people have come through our doors.

We focused on nurturing our community, and created a wealth of loyal friends who referred their friends and family. We even had the privilege to teach an entire company with a hundred fifty employees. We have regular weekend retreat courses in Izu, and regular advanced lectures and courses around Japan. It may not be a place that everyone would be attracted to, but it seems fit for those people who like a positive, young and successful atmosphere, which is the way I like it.

The most difficult thing for me was learning patience to manage a company. Everything was new to me, and I had to learn about administration, finances, marketing, and sales, which I had no idea how to do. I only knew in my gut the direction I needed to take the company, but the process was very slow. It was the grind.

The only way to keep myself from giving up was cultivating my gratitude. The top things you need in creating a successful business is purpose, perseverance and patience. Without it, you’ll end up wanting to take shortcuts that eventually bite you back somewhere down the road.

I’ve been lucky with moments that seemed to be too good to be true. Call it serendipity or synchronicity, but when we were in the deep with our company, something or someone always seemed to come around to bring us back to where we needed to be. It’s like an invisible hand. I believe when you genuinely want to do good for others, and you’re doing your best to make it happen, the opportunity for luck to come into your life increases. I’ve been lucky many times in my life.

At the end of the day, no matter how hard the grind is, it comes down to joy and laughter. My wife thinks I’m the comedian, but she cracks me up multiple times a day. Laughter helps to keep things in perspective and makes the process so much more enjoyable. There are 99 million things to be worried and frustrated about everyday, but there’s always at least 1 thing you can find to laugh about. When I find it hard to find that one thing, it’s usually because I’m in the deep end of being too serious. I like to take a moment to smile at how intensely focused I am. Taking one step back, seeing the big picture, and just appreciating and finding the humor in every situation always helped me get through the darkest hours.

When you cultivate joy and laughter, it radiates and it’s what people are naturally attracted to. Everyone knows life isn’t easy, and if you don’t know, you probably still live with your parents or got a lucky break. When you radiate this joy, people want to be a part of it, and want to share it with others. We’ve been lucky to have a flow of referrals from our dedicated community only through word of mouth.

I have learned that in business your pipeline is your lifeblood and it always needs to be full. You have to constantly create awareness in prospective clients, provide enough information so they can do their own research and become interested, make an offer, deliver a good quality product or service, and follow up. You always need to have the energy flowing in your business. Otherwise, you’re not flowing. You’re not moving. That causes the wheels to stop turning and your company comes to a hault. Keeping your eyes on the whole process while focusing on the details takes some practice.

If done right, you can eventually create 500 true fans. It’s all you really need to create a success business and a comfortable life. For example, if you have 500 people who trust you, and like you and your services, they’re ready to be a part of your events, courses, and activities. Let’s say those 500 people purchase your $30 product or service. That’s $15,000. For most people, that’s a comfortable monthly income. For most businesses, that’s not all that difficult to achieve.

You start to create a culture where people gain value through the community and being together. Just how an organism is made of many microorganism, or how the galaxy is made of many stars and solar systems, your company becomes sustainable with 500 true fans.

Currently, I feel I’m getting ready to move on to another level in life beyond teaching TM and managing a TM center. After teaching hundreds of people and seeing the change in their life, I’m now drawn to helping others build a business that is fueled by their passion and purpose.

I need to do me. I have to keep following my intuition and joy. So I’ve created the Cosmic Entrepreneur program to help people build a mind body startup with 500 true fans. This can be beneficial for people just getting started or business owners who want to learn a more “zen” way of doing things. There really is no need to become a millionaire to live a good life. I’ve done a million and a half, and I can tell you it doesn’t really change anything other than the fact that you can buy more things. You still have to work on you, and I’m sure your wife will happily remind you of that.

Becoming wealthy isn’t a bad thing. However, it’s the unsatisfied small ego that wants to continuously grab a hold of millions and millions of dollars that you can’t even manage. It causes an imbalance of what you desire and what you actually need. This causes strain. All you need is to create a sustainable ecosystem in your business, so that you can enjoy the process called life. A business is always to support your lifestyle, not the other way around.

With the ever-changing field of marketing, online platforms, and social media, etc., it’s effecting the global economy and the large corporations. The media agencies on Wall Street are definitely feeling it.

I believe more and more people will want to become independent. There will be a growing number of house wives who start a home business and create their own independent income. More 14 year olds will become YouTubers and eBay flippers, rather than becoming hamburger flippers. Experienced professionals will become freelancers or contract workers, rather than caging themselves in a corporate environment. There is already a growing number of entrepreneurs and business owners, which only creates more opportunity for investors, angels, and philanthropists.

My intuition also tells me more and more people will want more balance between their happiness, health, and wealth. More people will want less B.S., such as these self-help gurus who don’t have real solution, talent or life experiences. People will steer away from these “make money fast” gurus who have never owned a real business. Those who took shortcuts may do well in the short term, but in the next 5, 10 or 20 years, the market will separate the authentic from the phony.

People will need to stop chasing an unreachable dream and become comfortable with who they really are, not what the media tells them to become. People will naturally enjoy more down time, family time, and being a part of a community. Technology, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and e-sports will change the way we use time, socialize and make purchases.

To be happy and comfortable, you don’t need to be a millionaire, be famous, or live each day to extremes as if it was the last day of your life. We just need to be ourselves, and less influenced by what others think of us. The next 5 or 10 years are going to challenge every one of us to find our purpose, perseverance, and patience.

Do you.

I’ve been in this business for about a decade now. I’ve met a lot of gooneys and some of the most amazing individuals. I’ve had my highs, and I’ve had my lows. I’m fascinated by it. I’m growing fast. I’m learning fast. I’m still a student of this stuff, but I have a service to offer for those of you getting started or want to take things to the next level.

I’m starting a series of talks called “Mind Body Startup with 500 True Fans.” It’s an integration of my new venture Cosmic Entrepreneur and TM Japan.

There is a process I created called Be-Do-Thrive. Be, meaning going within and getting to know yourself. Do, meaning finding a suitable business model that suits your lifestyle. Thrive, meaning utilizing the latest platforms to reach and nuture your 500 fans as quickly as possible. Topics include mind-body health, self-branding, building 500 true fans, latest marketing strategies through social media, and how meditation can help you in the process.

I hold lectures in Tokyo, which include a brief overview, a networking session to meet other participants, some demos, Q&A, and a mini-private session for those interested.

I also offer private sessions, live events and webinars, regular blog posts, videos, and share information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Line, and Instagram. If you are interested, feel free to connect with me or email cosmic@naokimizutani.com

I wish you happiness, health and wealth, and most of all, I hope you enjoy the process of becoming more you.

Stay tuned to get the latest updates and insider’s tips.

[shirlleycoyle]

India’s Best TV Shows Have Emerged From Uncensored Streaming Platforms

A few months ago there was a whisper through the brown girl network. I got texts, DMs, and Snapchats, and they all asked the same thing: have you seen Made in Heaven? Have you seen Four More Shots? In the South Asian diaspora, news travels quickly, and these shows—both on Amazon Prime—were the latest.

When I watched them—a few hours at a time, often late into the night—I immediately understood the significance. Handfuls of other Indian dramas on streaming platforms released in the past two years, are not Bollywood, nor are they the Hindi serials on my aunties’ television sets. Their ability to show the genitalia of a transgender woman, surveillance of a gay man by his oppressed neighbor, or a pseudo-woke groom demanding dowry of his bride at the altar is a reality that had, for many years, remained on the cutting room floor because of the Central Board of Film Certification, an Indian government authority which censors media with a conservative lens.

Now, since streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (as well as homegrown platforms like Hotstar) remain outside of the central board’s regulatory grasp, they are capitalizing on their ability to remain out of the censor board’s reach in a way that allows creators to remain true to their story. In order to circumvent the heavy hand of censorship, some platforms, such as Netflix and Hotstar, have pledged to self censor based on their own interpretation of the law, while others, such as Amazon, are following their own rules.

“We are as compliant with the laws of the land as we are required to be,” said Vijay Subramaniam, director and head of content for Amazon Prime Video in India. “At the same time, we have an internal code. It is important to be authentic, allowing our creators to think unconstrained.”

Made in Heaven, based off the trope of the complex Indian wedding in Delhi’s high society, deftly navigates patriarchy, homophobia, and the caste system with a tenor somewhere between Gossip Girl and HBO’s Divorce. Four More Shots, meanwhile, was described to me as a brown Sex and the City. But with gut-wrenching scenes of a mother separated from her kid, or a bisexual Punjabi woman having a behind-doors relationship with a movie star. is far closer to the reality of a middle class Indian woman eeking out an existance in Mumbai.

“These girls had to be real, had to bleed, had to have flaws and yet had to rise above it all to be their own little un-superheroes,” said Rangita Pritish Nandy, the showrunner and creator of Four More Shots, who also grew up in Mumbai. “Amazon let us tell their story honestly, without being prudish and puritanical.”

The comparison is even more stark if you watch the Bollywood movies that have attempted to tackle similar topics. Earlier this year, established Bollywood producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, debuted Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (translation: I looked at a girl and felt something), the story of a girl, also in Punjab, who tries to come out to her family. Throughout the course of the two hour film, however, the main character, Sweety, and her girlfriend, Kuhu, never kiss, nor does anyone say anything outright about sexual identity except for a quirky playwright who tries to use his script as a tool to teach her family about equality, likely to avoid censorship.

It’s not necessarily Bollywood’s fault that its storylines remain far removed from the conversations happening in actual Indian society. The censorship board most recently threatened the release of the epic story Padmavat because some Hindu sensibilities were offended by the Muslim character trying to steal away a Rajput queen. The board also repeatedly refused to allow the release of Gulabi Aaina, an award-winning film about transsexuals in India, that is now (after 14 years) on Netflix in India and otherwise. Recently, a censorship board member also attacked Karan Johar, a gay entertainment personality and movie maker, with a weird, now removed tweet about him having sex with his mother.

Some of this censorship has been reined in after India’s Supreme Court struck down Section 377, a British-era law that criminalized homosexuality, last September. But the censorship board, and other conservative voices, can still rely on draconian laws such as Section 292, which bans imagery that is deemed overtly sexual or lascivious, if they want to crack down.

Even with the advent of streaming platforms attempting to win over the Indian market, creators are often careful. “We self censor. It’s not like we don’t show kissing—we swear in the show, but we won’t write a story that’s explicitly sexual or raunchy.” said Ashwin Suresh, founder of Dice Media, Pocket Aces, and the creator of the Netflix show, Little Things, about a young unmarried couple navigating work and social life in Mumbai.

While shows like Netflix’s Sacred Games, about the Mumbai underworld, and Made in Heaven, might not shy away from nudity and explicit violence or sexuality, the creators of Little Things took the route of sitcoms like Friends, employing a mix of comedy and quirk factor. And Suresh, whose shows first became popular on YouTube, said that while he supports the lack of censorship on platforms like Netflix and Amazon, he also tries not to stir up controversy in his shows. “Indian culture is wired not to change. I expect to see some censorship,” he said.

This might seem overly cautious, but Indian censorship can influence global companies as well, even if there’s no clear and consistent way of cracking down on them. Last year Amazon pulled a number of products from its marketplace in India when they were deemed offensive. And it’s not absurd to think that companies like Netflix trying hard to court and profit from the massive, young population in India will end up following any rules that allow it to keep its foothold in the country.

Actors Mithila Phadke and Dhruv Sehgal behind the scenes of Little Things. Image: courtesy Pocket Aces

Ironically, though, it’s the India-based online streaming platforms run by media groups like Star and Zee that are taking the most risks, and critics say it’s not always for the sake of quality. “There’s a lot of exploitation, because there’s no censorship,” said Maanvi Gagroo, an actress who plays the leading role of Siddhi Patel on Four More Shots, in addition to starring on the YouTube series, Tripling. “They put in an intimate scene because they can, even if its not part of the narrative.” Other creators and actors also described these homegrown streamed shows to me as soft porn, or unnecessarily provocative.

Even with some platforms peddling cheap thrills, the massive shift in progressive storytelling has pushed the entire industry one step forward, even on an individual level. “We’re used to watching a lot of intimate scenes but I had personally never done that as an actor,” said Gagroo, whose character Siddhi starts as a virgin dabbling in an online dominatrix persona on Four More Shots. “But my director told me this show would end up liberating me as a person. And it did happen.”

For Nandy, who created the show based on her own life and those of her friends, the important this is to continue making shows that don’t shy away from the grit and complexity of Indian life, especially for women. “The truth is that Amazon just told us to make a great show, they didn’t stick us with any shackles and therefore every track, character,” she said. “And the storyline was not only special but also challenging because we had zero excuses—we had to crack a sticky, genuine and memorable show.”

And for the millions of Indians in and outside the country, it is both a thing of intrigue and relief that the stories we know to be true are no longer diluted by bureaucracy, allowing the evolution of culture, politics and society to live both on screen, and off.

India’s Best TV Shows Have Emerged From Uncensored Streaming Platforms syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[antiques-for-geeks]

Game Review : Bullet

Commodore Vic 20 / Mastertronic / 1984 / Originally £1.99

The thing that first strikes you about Bullet isn’t the fact that it’s nearly as old as you are, but that in your grubby hands is an equally grubby cassette case whose inlay contained some really good artwork. There it sat, giving the game a sense that it has jumped straight out of the world of Blade Runner or Altered Carbon. So good in fact, it could easily have graced the Maplin catalogue in 1985.

That the cover it is so divorced from the game it’s selling was pretty standard fare for the time. Graphics being what they were, it would be a tough sell to put them front end centre, even for the princely sum of £1.99.

Some other Bullit packaging, yesterday.

Bullet is an odd mash-up of a Head-on clone and Snake, crammed into 3.5Kb of memory. The first part of the game is represented as you driving your hotrod sports car through the city streets (you’re never told which city it is, the narrative of the game doesn’t stretch that far) collecting coins while dodging a Police car. Apparently, they have sophisticated radio communication so they always know where you are. Being rammed by the fuzz costs you a life and also resets the coins to be collected.

After a dramatic car chase around the city, the suspect was apprehended causing a red exclamation mark to appear.

Successfully collect all the coins and the action shifts to the second screen - this time you have the opportunity to the city bank. You dart around the screen, hitting four targets however you leave a trace and it you cross it, you lose a life and the game returns to the first screen, just a little bit sped up.

So far, so simple.

The game starts with a rudimentary tune playing over a welcome screen - which is incredibly annoying. Each time you lose a life a few more bars are blurted out, just as a reminder of how bad it is. This stands in stark contrast to the other in-game sound effects. There are literally none. Not a whisper.

Graphically, the game was never really going to be able to compete with other titles of the day. Bitmap graphics are always going to be out on the Vic 20 and with very little memory to play with, it comes as no surprise that this is strictly a character-set based affair with muted colours. However, the lack of smooth scrolling for the objects on the screen is not a major problem. Everything moves around quickly enough to mask the jerkiness and does not get in the way of the gameplay. What does get in the way, is the control.

Of course, your car puts up a barrier for you to crash into on the way to the bank. Natch.

At the best of times, the controls are muddled, irrespective of whether the keyboard or the joystick is used. That the developer still felt the need to have keyboard control in 1984 on the Vic, which had a built-in joystick port clearly demonstrates the market Mastertronic were playing to. This isn’t just budget, this is budget-budget. People buying a Vic this late in its life weren’t going to be the last of the big spenders.

There comes a time in any platform’s existence where a developer smacks hard against the constraints of their hardware. A talented programmer might whip out a few tricks and give you a surprise, a gifted one might eek out some unknown performance that you never thought was possible by doubling down and hitting the silicon. This hasn’t happened here. Not even close. The game feels like it was coded in BASIC as an evening project and never converted to machine code; to meet the ambition of this game, this would have been needed. You can’t complain about budget titles too much though, right?

Wrong.

Buying it today

It’s pretty ubiquitous in the UK, so be careful if buying this from an auction site not to pay too much. Those listings that say it’s rare? It’s not.

Commentariat

Tim : I really had no preconceptions for Bullet when the tape arrived in the post. There is little to give away the game until you get it loaded. Being a title for an unexpanded Vic, it loads pretty fast and you’re straight into the action. The silent action. With unresponsive controls and a first screen that resets whenever you lose a life, it got old really quickly. The controls are confusing and unresponsive and change depending on the orientation of your car. Which if you’ve ever played any game, ever, doesn’t make any sense.

Really, this game could have done with some editing. Creating a mash-up from elements of two different games makes something not quite as good as either. I salute the programme’s attempt to get it all in, I really do, but it doesn’t work.

Sadly for me, a couple of goes and I’m bored and my money felt wasted.

Pop : Even accepting this is (or was) a budget title, it offers very little entertainment for the modern player. It’s a poor second even to the Atari 2600 clone of the same game, Dodge ‘em, which offered smoother graphics and a 2 player mode. That game also allowed the player to speed up their car by pressing the fire button, a simple feature that adds a exciting element of risk/reward to the game completely absent here. The addition of the snake inspired bonus level adds very little, and what we’re left with is ponderous and tedious.

Meat : No. No more of the music. Please. I’ll do anything. Just make it stop.

Score card

Presentation  5/10

Standard budget fare, but that cover is brilliant.

Originality 2/10

A little kudos for trying to mix two genres, but neither are implemented well enough.

Graphics 3/10

Nothing special here - type-in game territory.

Hookability 1/10

Initially you want to do well, but the lack of quality comes through pretty quickly.

Sound 2/10

It’s got some. Pity it’s awful.

Lastability 1/10

Two screens, the first of which is painful to get through. So frustrating to play, it’s a mercy when you flick the off switch.

Value for Money 2/10

There are better games out there for Vic, for the same kind of money.

Overall 3/10

Coming three years after the release of Commodore’s clone of Head On, this should have buried it. That it doesn’t even come close speaks volumes.

[idontevenwannaknow]

cheap wedding packages whitsundays

Whitsundays wedding packages understands all occasions are “special” we listens to your inspiration and necessities, offer recommendation and ideas on how to attain, then a bundle worth could be decided. My service also contains fixed discussions and recommendation once booking date has been confirmed guaranteeing all aspects and expectations are met. Discover AUSTRALIA is the package deal specialist, enabling your entire trip to be booked in a single single online booking. Expertise all of the romance, tranquillity and journey of an award-successful tropical paradise and one of many world’s most fascinating private island and honeymoon locations. Bringing true cinema high quality and expertise to your wedding. A recommendation by Vacation Canvas, Emirates One&Solely Wolgan Valley is a conservation-primarily based retreat, that combines absolute luxurious and seclusion with a quintessentially Australian bush expertise. Hamilton Island’s Basic Supervisor of promoting, Denny-Lyn Dixon said, ‘Hamilton Island is an iconic Australian vacation vacation spot and likewise a super location to get married.

Airlie Beach is the best location to host your vacation spot wedding with a huge variety of accommodation choices, restaurants, actions and a cosmopolitan resort environment. We've got hundreds of venues that you can select from, together with every part from a formal wedding ceremony reception venue to a vacation spot marriage ceremony venue. Marriage ceremony Desires - It may be the dream of the bride or groom to have a conventional wedding and maybe one would sacrifice this for the other. In addition to the components talked about above, you must also consider the theme of your wedding. Unfortunately, although wedding suppliers may actually want they could, they can’t learn your mind. Sundowner also gives Hens and Bucks parties for wedding couples who wish to additionally host these pre wedding ceremony activities within the Whitsundays instead of of their dwelling town. Some couples stretch the celebrations out for a week - and where better to spend your ‘wedding week’ than the fantastic Whitsundays? Hamilton Island: as you may count on, Hamilton Island is certainly one of the primary selections for many couples planning their wedding ceremony because of the huge choice of lovely settings out there for the ceremony and the ease of getting the whole lot arranged.

So it’s probably not a matter of what options are available to you, but rather, what you truly desire to your marriage ceremony day—there are no limitations! Some packages even include cocktails or any of the dining options accessible on the Twelve Apostles Hotel. With a spread of provisioning options to choose from, courtesy of our provisioning service, it is our pleasure to wine and dine you whilst you loosen up and take in our region’s famously turquoise waters and island vistas. There is a deal for everybody with an enormous vary of Queensland travel deals to select from. You can chopper over with just the 2 of you, or Heli Taxi will take their whole fleet to the skies to transfer 17 passengers at once till your complete visitor list is barefoot on the beach. Opt to marry on Boathaven Beach or take a quick scenic flight over to Whitehaven Beach and return to have fun in style with up to 120 of your nearest and dearest.

Having serviced effectively over 5000 occasions now, we have seen it all in the case of props (and we do mean all of it). I have been a photographer for a few years, as a member of the AIPP, I photograph weddings within the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast & Toowoomba. What do you assume are the upcoming tendencies for 2014/2015 weddings? Tickets are selling quick for our Brisbane marriage ceremony truthful which is only a few brief weeks wedding packages in whitsundays away now! Ocean entrance wedding ceremony chapel, wedding celebrant, marriage certificate. Whether it’s a backdrop of azure blue water you’re dreaming of, an elegant island wedding ceremony chapel, coral beaches, or grassy knolls with a tropical island setting, Daydream Island has you covered. Daydream Island affords a host of reception packages, areas and dining types. We have now two separate pool areas with BBQ’s and lounges and tables & chairs for al fresco dining. As a skilled Intimo Lingerie Bra Fitter & Stylist I've my very own impartial enterprise & come to your property for private, professional & distinctive service.

For those wishing to take pleasure in a romantic keep, ensure you e-book into the Coral Sea Suites, which, because the title suggests, sit proper on the sting of the Coral Sea and are available full with balcony spas and hammocks. As well as study one thing new about Pinup…if you come away with a gorgeous cheeky pose that is individually you I’ve completed my job! I liked the time I had with Sam, the stylist, she did a tremendous job and made me really feel so relaxed. As a video production company, we're used to creating films for our clients which are participating and inform their stories. I imagine that you need to create a relationship/connection with purchasers so as to produce great pictures. Day 2 - you're collected from Toscana Village Resort and taken to the Whitsunday airport to board your airplane for a tremendous aerial view of the Whitsunday islands and Barrier Reef out to see the iconic Coronary heart Reef. Show the children how hot you're with a ball in the alley on Hamilton Islands personal 9 Pin Bowling Alley or the mini golf course or get the adrenaline pumping on a jet boat! Perhaps you’re hungry for the simplicity of cocktails and nibbles, craving a seafood buffet, obtained a style for a traditional spit roast barbecue or perhaps you’re ready to go all out with a sumptuous ‘no expense spared’ formal dinner.

Top Tips for Choosing Your Wedding Photographer Men end up finding that it is hard to find the right shirt and tie to use. However, it's not as challenging as it is considered, all it requires is that you follow easy rules, and you'll soon find that you're an expert. So whether you need the best mix for the office, or perhaps you wish to stay ahead of the crowd on the evening out, the subsequent shirt and tie combinations offers you a selection of mixes to chose from. 1. D.I.Y. You know the phrase "if you want something done properly, do it yourself?" Well, this goes for if you want to stretch your budget! For example, we made your own favors. Sure, it will take longer (much. longer.), but it surely gets to be a labor of love! We bought boxes in large quantities from Amazon and assembled them ourselves, while watching "Bridezillas" (okay, what a joke, but not likely past an acceptable limit in the truth.) We also bought roughly a million bags of Hershey's Kisses (along with some advance planning, we got the Kisses from CVS and paid for the vast majority of all of them with extra bucks!) We then tied each box which has a bow (with ribbon bought in Michaels using a 40% off coupon.) Another project we chose to take on ourselves was the invitations. You can spend a lot of money on custom invites made by another individual, or you can purchase a kit (Michael's has great ones off their "Brides" collection) and design and print your individual! Get creative! Include as much unique details since you can, to generate the marriage yours! When you do things yourself, you can create whatever changes you need, whenever you want. If you send your invitations off and away to be done, you wouldn't be capable of understand the first one and select you desire to change it out. You'd have 100 invites which you wanted changed! Eek!

Silver anniversaries at twenty five years could be marked having a renewal of vows, a sizable party to see relatives and friends, another honeymoon or holiday a person can have, or indeed the suggestions above. The same goes to the golden wedding. However, by this time in a couples' life they may have everything they already want or need. Gifts, therefore, are more of a challenge. Christening or baptism invitation cards are generally provided for godparents, relatives and buddies. Regardless of denomination, on this wedding day the child is officially named. It gives everyone the opportunity to welcome the little one into the Family, the Church, and the Community. The invitation includes the newborn's name, and the date, location and period of the christening. It may also state the best place for your reception afterward. You can decide mutually as outlined by your dress code and color what type of band will look better. Match along with of ring while using bride's bridal dress. Sometimes, coordination in ring buying results in arguments. So, if you realise this thing happening between you, just avoid shopping together. Many people wear a diamond ring and a wedding ring together on the wedding ceremony, to help you suit your a wedding ring to engagement ring, or make contrast of both of the rings. You must find the ring in accordance with your personality. The ring should complement the hands and yes it needs to be based on yourself.

[airadam]

Episode 132 : All Love

"They don't never see the work, only results of it."

- Rapper Big Pooh

Another month inside, and one that has been tinged with sadness; we say Rest In Power to Ty, Andre Harrell, and the soul legend Betty Wright. The month's selection starts with a favourite of mine from Ty's catalogue, and though the styles change, we keep a steady pace all the way through - I know some of you are running to try and stay in shape during this time, so I hope it helps!

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Ty ft. Kwadjo and Michelle Escoffery : Ha Ha

"Feeling like my left toe's equal to Pele" - always loved that line, I think it's the delivery! We start off with a track from Ty's second studio album ("Upwards"), which was also on the B-side of the "Groovement" 12". From the off, he was an artist who never pretended to be anything other than who he was and represented his life with skill and humour, which is well-demonstrated here! The beat is kind of staccato, with no hi-hat between drum beats and the synth bass stabbing in hard. Wicked tune from one of our greats who will be sadly missed.

[Dante Ross] Casual : Turf Dirt (Instrumental)

The 2001 "VIP" single was dope, but the headline track was definitely an example of an artist trying to step into the unfamiliar sonic territory of the club lane! "Turf Dirt" was the last track of three, and the B-side has instrumentals of everything - in this case, Dante Ross with a stomper.

J-Live : Harder

I'd almost forgotten about this one until it turned up as part of the vinyl digitisation project! A 2005 single release from "The Hear After", this is a loud and proud statement of intent from one of the hardest-working artists in the business. The beat is courtesy of the five-headed production team "The Fire Dept", who also did some work for GZA the same year and have also performed as his live band.

Conway the Machine : Be Proud Of Me

Buffalo's Conway is an artist who knows of the life that he speaks, and this is a really personal track. He's clawed his way up to a career as a respected MC, but as you can hear, not everyone with him was really with him as he tried to make it. Khrysis is on production, giving this real-life story an appropriately downbeat backing, on the penultimate cut on "EIF 2 : Eat What U Kill".

Big Twan ft. Big Kwam : The Hellgate Rebel

This track has some of my favourite scratches on a rap record of all time, with Tony Vegas of the Scratch Perverts flaring out in an ill fashion! The deep listeners might know Big Twan from his debut professional appearance, a verse on Big L's "8 Iz Enuff", but the "One Time 4 The Lyricist" 12" is his sole vinyl release as a soloist. The main track is heavy, and having this on there as well makes the vinyl a great addition to your library. It's a meeting of the Bigs, with Twan sharing mic time with the UK MC Big Kwam over a killer beat from The Creators - the horns and bass might be the drivers, but check the plucked guitar-type sounds all over the verses too. 

Genaside II ft. Eek-A-Mouse : Just As Rough

The UK's Genaside II were a really unique crew who had Hip-Hop, rave, jungle, and more in their stylistic blend. In various combinations and configurations since the 90s, they've been a low-key influence on quite a few big names, despite being unknown to many! This track is from their debut "New Life 4 The Hunted", and features the legendary reggae artist Eek-A-Mouse on vocals, telling a story of a hard life on the streets. If you've got the ear for something a bit different - especially if you like D&B or breakbeat - then the album is well worth picking up if you see it.

Blue Stone : Lost Sun

This is probably a bit "New Age"-y and ambient for some if heard in isolation, but I think it fits well here! It's got a little bit of a north African/Arab vibe to the drums at the start, and builds up from a gentle start to a thundering peak before easing back down. It's one of the many well-produced tracks on the 2007 "Worlds Apart" LP.

The Mouse Outfit ft. One Only : Sunrise

Brand new single, and perfect for the season! An all-Manchester affair with One Only showing versatility on the mic, and Chini and Metrodome taking the production reins. A welcome return, no doubt.

Pitch 92 ft. Tyler Daley : Confused

Chilled again, Manchester again, this time from the "3rd Culture" album from last year. Pitch 92 showed the talent from early in his career, and the release of his producer project was great to see.  If you're looking for top-shelf local mic expertise, Tyler Daley should be one of the first names on the list, and you get him switching effortlessly between the bars many don't recognise him for and the singing voice that they do.

Black Star ft. Black Thought : Respiration (Pete Rock Remix)

No doubt, the original "Respiration" from the "Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star" LP is a great track. But how do you make it better? First off, bring in Black Thought, one of those who could be described as "your favourite MC's favourite MC". That kicks things up a notch. Not enough? Ok, why not bring Pete Rock in to remix it? This should be illegal. Brilliant re-working of the 1998 classic, which I'm pulling from the "4 Pete Sake" (bootleg?) remix compilation, but which is also on the B-side of the main single. 

Camp Lo : Life I Love

I absolutely loved the "Ragtime Hightimes" album, and while there are many tracks that are more of an immediate sonic hit, this one is a quiet killer. This is a group who need to be called in to score a heist movie, as they drop slang-heavy, super-dense rhymes about a glamourised crime life all over a Ski beat that's as cool as the other side of the pillow.

[Prince Kaysaan] Royal Flush : Can't Help It (Instrumental)

Kaysaan's run may "only" have been a few releases between 1997 and 1998, but he forever gets props for this one from "Ghetto Millionaire" alone. The combo of an 80s R&B sample with the filter coming in and out together with crispy jazz-sourced drums made this a late 90s winner that I'm happy to throw on a mixtape anytime.

Kris Kross ft. Da Brat, Aaliyah, Jermaine Dupri, and Mr Black: Live and Die for Hip-Hop (DJ Clark Kent Mix)

RIP Chris Kelly, gone seven years as of this month. Most people don't even realise that Kris Kross continued to record after their "Jump" and "I Missed The Bus" days, but they did indeed, and this is a remix of a track from their third and final album, 1996's "Young, Rich, & Dangerous". Laid back, cooled out, but in a different and even better-done fashion to the LP version - that bass flavour is definitely working.

Little Brother : Work Through Me

The return of Little Brother last year was much-welcomed by those who've been with them since the beginning, and they are standouts when it comes to bringing the changes in their lives into the music. This is a track about not just their own music career, but getting up every day and doing your best - which is pretty appropriate right now. Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh have continued to improve with age, and while 9th Wonder didn't join them this time, Focus and BlaaqGold slay this bumping and soulful beat.

Reks : Due Diligence

The "Revolution Cocktail" album by Reks seems to have all but disappeared - you won't find it on Spotify, and I can't find it on Amazon or other download sites either. It's a shame, as I think he had some high-quality tracks on there. I don't have a producer credit for this, but the beat was what drew me in first. You can almost hear Reks warming up on the first few bars before he hits his stride and brings it home. The Massachusetts native is incredibly slept on, even after twelve albums - but I appreciate the grind.

Boyz II Men ft. Erick Sermon, Redman, Keith Murray, and 2 Ta Da Head : Vibin' (Kenny Smoove Remix)

As @DragonflyJonez recently suggested, you might not be able to think of any gatherings where it was demanded that Boyz II Men be put on, but this might be an exception! Kenny Smoove was part of the Untouchables collective that also included Eddie F, Dave "Jam" Hall, and one Pete Rock, and he did his thing on this remix. Granted, I'm not exactly Mr R&B, but this slaughters the original, not least because he brings in heavy artillery - the whole Def Squad, headed up by Erick Sermon. There's a whole 12" of remixes that this is drawn from, should you want to hear some alternative takes!

Ilajide : Mothership Connection 1-2

Detroit in the house, with the trademark bump of Clear Soul Forces' Ilajide, from his killer 2015 "Latex" LP.

Bronx Slang : Excuse Me Officer

We close with a great track from 2019's debut LP from the link up of Jerry Beeks and Ollie Miggs - Bronx Slang. If you're very eagle-eared, you'll recognise a couple of these bars from the track I did with Jerry Beeks ("I'm A Cop"), which is on episode 86 of the podcast! Sadly, as this topic continues to be relevant, new names enter the roll of the fallen, and Beeks expands still further on police violence.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[infotainmentplus-blog]

Steam Link Android app review: PC gaming goes mobile The beta version of Valve’s Steam Link app for Android hit the Play Store about a month ago, allowing gamers to stream their favorite PC games to their smartphone or Android TV. I’m very well acquainted with Valve’s TV hardware version of the technology, so let’s dust off a Bluetooth controller and see how it works on a phone. If you want to give the app a try for yourself, you can grab it for free from the link below. install the steam link app (beta) Simple to setup Credit where it’s due, Valve makes in-home streaming easy to set up and use. Just install the app while Stream is running on your PC, connect up a Bluetooth controller, and you’re good to go. The Steam Link app will test your network capability upon first connection, giving you an indication of whether your system will provide a stable frame rate. The default is set to Balanced quality at 15Mbps, but you can improve or downgrade this quality depending on the app’s test result (more on that in a bit). The app interface is simple enough, presenting a quick button to start playing or some additional settings if you’re looking to optimize streaming performance. Once you’re connected, your PC will automatically enter “Big Picture Mode,” providing simplified navigation to your favorite games and other Steam features using a controller. I experienced occasional connection issues launching the app. Even though Steam was running on my PC, the app sometimes couldn’t detect my computer. This happened sometimes on the Steam Link hardware too. Turning my phone’s Wi-Fi off and on again fixed the problem. Performance and networking Achieving a solid connection is the key to a good Steam Link experience and the rules are the same for the app as they were for the hardware version. For best results, you’ll want to connect your PC to your router via an ethernet cable to reduce the round trip latency significantly. My setup is nothing special. I have a basic hub provided by my ISP at the other end of a long room from my TV which has a Steam Link plugged in, although it offers a fast 5GHz channel which comes in handy. I don’t use extenders or mesh networking. Around my reasonably sized two-bedroom flat, there’s only one major Wi-Fi dead zone and that’s the only place I witnessed any connection drops. The Steam Link app offers the same three quality presets as the TV hardware. Beautiful provides the best quality video compression but requires a steady 30Mbps connection. Fast compresses the stream more heavily but only needs a 10Mbps link, making it ideal if you suffer from patchy connectivity across your home. Balanced sits nicely in between, at 15Mbps. Fast Quality Beautiful Quality Using the built-in network diagnostic tools, I clocked around 1ms network latency virtually everywhere and packet losses under one percent, even on the Beautiful preset. Your mileage will obviously vary depending on your distance from your router and home layout. I didn’t run into any network problems, but the app struggled with video decoding performance, something that wasn’t a concern for the Steam Link TV hardware. The flagship phones I tested couldn’t keep up with the 60fps output with my PC using the Beautiful preset, producing results that dipped into headache-inducing low 20s. The situation is slightly better with the Balanced option, but you’ll want to go for Fast to really lock in high frame rates. Dropping the resolution down to 720p, or even down to 480p for lower end hardware, worked too. Phones with HEVC can boost network throughput, but I still recommend Fast streaming quality or a 720p resolution for best performance. Fortunately, Fast rendering video artifacts usually easy to spot on a large TV are undetectable on a small smartphone display, and dropping to 720p barely touches the image quality either. You might be able to boost performance and bandwidth a bit more if your phone supports HEVC hardware decoding, but it’s not enabled by default. This option is located in the app under Settings > Streaming > Advanced > HEVC Video, and toggle it to enabled. Results varied for me with HEVC enabled, so its usefulness will depend heavily on your setup. This setting didn’t make a meaningful difference on the hardware I tested — it’s really designed to eek out extra performance in lower bandwidth situations like on a 2.4GHz network. Enabling this on phones that don’t support hardware decode decreased performance. One final note, a lot of phones default to strange resolutions, like 1,808 x 1,024 with the Note 8, which heavily impacts encode and decode performance compared to a standard resolution like 1080p or 720p, so definitely change this right away if performance is sluggish. Ultimately, using a combination of Fast quality and 720p is a worthwhile compromise when streaming to a phone. There’s no noticeable loss in quality on a small screen, encode and decode frame rates go up, latency goes down, you’re more free to roam around without connection drops, and the lighter load means better battery life for your phone. I’d even go so far as to recommend this setup if your phone supports HEVC decoding too. Big Picture could be better Steam’s Big Picture UI, which runs on your PC when using both the Steam Link app or TV hardware, is built to improve large screen and controller navigation over a PC keyboard and mouse setup. Navigating through with a Bluetooth controller on your smartphone will feel very familiar to Steam Link hardware users. Some options aren’t always the easiest to find, but on the whole navigating through menus, picking games, and configuring your setup is straightforward enough. The UI prompts don’t necessarily match your controller interface, but that’s an inevitable trade-off when supporting a wide range of third-party products. Valve has missed an opportunity to improve the experience for Steam Link app users though. Your smartphone’s touch screen continues to work when running the app, meaning navigating via touch is often a lot faster than scrolling through menus with D-Pad buttons. Unfortunately, the UI isn’t tweaked at all for smartphone interfaces, and many options are a little on the small side for pressing with a finger. Some quality-of-life software improvements for smartphone users would be welcome. You can’t really expect smartphone users to type on this cramped keyboard. While it’s easy enough to launch your favorite game with a tap on the large icon, scrolling through the majority of the smaller menu options is a pain. There’s no support for Android keyboards in chat yet, and touches don’t always register when you press on the cramped Steam software keyboard, making typing an inconsistent experience. I’d also like to see swipe support introduced for moving through some of the menus rather than having to press the shoulder buttons. A more mobile-optimized experience is going to be needed to iron out these bugbears. Tailored features will hopefully be implemented by the time the Steam Link app exits beta. A replacement for a TV Steam Link? As well as portable game streaming you can, of course, connect your phone up to a TV via HDMI to play on your big living room screen. This could cut out the need for a Steam Link hardware box entirely — at least if didn’t have so many issues. Given that streaming is rather demanding on the battery, you’ll want some form of HDMI dock with a charging port. I tried the idea out using both the Samsung Dex Station and an OTG adapter hub. Both worked, but remember the Dex Station costs $150 and the Dex Pad is $70. An OTG hub with charging costs just $20 —sometimes less — making it by far the most affordable option. Valve’s Steam Link retails for $50, but is often on sale for $20. In my experience, you are better off just getting that, for a few reasons. The original Steam Link is better than using phone/HDMI, but the app is a great proposition for Android TV owners The first is performance. I tried streaming to the TV on a variety of hardware configurations and had mixed results, most likely due to the extra computational power required to encode the HDMI output in conjunction with decoding the stream input. The Huawei P20 Pro didn’t like the situation at all, producing a much lower frame rate than before. The app also crashes in EMUI desktop mode. Performance was also sluggish on the Galaxy Note 8 when streaming in Dex desktop mode. Editor's Pick Streaming games might be coming to Netflix (Update: Netflix responds) NME Update (06/13) at 3:26 p.m. CT: Netflix has reached out to Android Authority to clarify a few points on the story. The streaming service confirmed that Minecraft: Story Mode, a licensed five-episode interactive narrative … Screen mirroring produces the best results. The Note 8 and LG V30 produced smooth frame rates in this mode. However, you’ll have to endure a duplicate screen in your field of view, which you don’t get with Dex mode. The odd aspect ratio of these devices also means you’ll end up with black bars on your TV stream, even after messing with the Full-Screen optimized app settings. It’s a less than premium experience that I wouldn’t recommend paying for. Ultimately I think streaming with a phone using HDMI is a fair way to test out if you’ll use TV streaming, providing you have the necessary components already at hand. However, the so-so performance and screen mirroring bugs mean smartphones definitely aren’t a replacement for Valve’s dedicated TV hardware. If you have an Android TV and can install the app, these same niggles won’t apply. Final thoughts Valve’s streaming solution is pretty great in my experience. The Steam Link app version showcases that the technology works just as well for portable devices as it does for your living room set. On both, your home network configuration will make or break the experience. Valve recommends an ethernet connection between your PC and router. That’s certainly been the only workable solution my experience. Unfortunately, the smartphone use case adds a few complications. The wide variety of video decoding and encoding hardware out there makes predicting streaming performance very difficult. You’ll certainly want to make some quality compromises compared to the hardware version to ensure a smooth frame rate. Valve's technology works great, but the variety of smartphone hardware make the experience inconsistent. I cannot recommend using your phone and Steam Link app as a replacement for Valve’s TV hardware. The performance is notably worse, even if you accept the necessary hit to video quality and the questionable compatibility of devices with non-16:9 aspect ratios with TV sets. Picking up a Link for $20 during a sale (which happens very often) is by far the best bet for TV streaming at this point, unless you have an Android TV. Editor's Pick 15 best Android games of 2018! Gaming on mobile has been improving at a far greater rate than any technology that came before it. Android games seems to hit new heights every year. With the release of Android Nougat and Vulkan … Overall I’m impressed by the technical capabilities of the beta version of the Steam Link app. A few mobile-centric quality of life improvements to the software are probably needed, and will hopefully be implemented come the full release. Now I just have to figure out what PC games I actually want to play on a small screen with a controller. , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2lvnfmB

[jbujnowski]

Currently: February 17

Video of the Week - Red Gerard's Gold Medal Run

Red. Gerard.

By now, everybody's heard his story. We've all heard about his post-competition interview, where he talks about his family shotgunning beers, his waking up late and wearing his teammate's jacket. What I feel is overlooked in the follow-up is the guys he was going against. I'm a little removed from my days of being well-informed on snowboarding, but I know Team Canada and Team Norway had some heavy hitters that were favored to stack the podium. Mark McMorris, Ståle Sandbech, Max Parrot and Marcus Kleveland are no joke. Those guys are tested, and they're obviously the best of the best.

Now, that's not to discredit Gerard. The kid RIPS. The first I'd heard of him was in Danny Davis' 2016 Peace Park video, and there was no doubt he held his own amongst the world's best snowboarders. Fast forward a couple years, and he's standing atop the Olympic slopestyle podium.

After his first two runs, I was just hoping he'd land a full one on his third and maybe eek out a bronze. But when he stomped all three booters with ease, I thought he may have scored the top spot. The judges agreed. But Red still had to wait for McMorris, Sandbech and Parrot to put down their final runs, three guys very capable of knocking him off the top spot. After McMorris and Sandbech fell, it was left to Max Parrot.

Parrot's final run was flawless, in my eyes. I thought for sure it'd get him gold. But when they announced his score, Gerard came out golden. I'm not sure what the judges saw in the runs that put Red's on top, but Todd Richards mentioned after Parrot's run that the judges definitely value the rail section more heavily. Red Gerard definitely had a good mix in the rail section, which must have been what set him apart in the end.

After one week, the U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team is looking pretty damn good, with a sweep of the freestyle events capped by Shaun White's storybook final halfpipe run. Looking forward to Big Air.

Instagram of the Week - @ag.con

This dude is a master content creator. I'll go out there and say it. I've seen plenty of different accounts, from brands, to personals, to influencers, try to pull off multi-post visuals. Typically they just annoy me, bogging down my feed and not really getting any message across unless I tap through to their profile to see the full image. I'll face it, I'm normally too lazy to do that. But this guy (Agusto?) slaps high quality photos on top of one large high quality photo to make collection its own series, and holy shit does it look cool all laid out on his feed. To cap it all off? The center photo of each set always has a video. I mean, come on. Talk about meticulous. I have to give a shoutout to my coworker for turning me on to this Instagram. Please take the time to look through his content. It's seriously one-of-a-kind, and probably one of the coolest Instagrams you'll see.

Article of the Week - Norge Ski Club Sends 3 Ski Jumpers to PyeongChang

Growing up in the shadow of the largest ski jump in the U.S. was pretty cool. Well, actually, after some research I found out it's nowhere near the country's tallest, but that's what we were led to believe as kids. Regardless, no matter where you were in my neighborhood, you could turn and see this massive structure jutting into the sky, lit up at night by LED rope lights. With just under 5,000 residents, Fox River Grove, Illinois is the definition a small Midwestern town. Though it's always had a huge part of my heart, it was finally put on the map this year, thanks to that ski jump we got from Ely, Minnesota for $0.01, plus shipping. Or so we heard in second grade.

Norge Ski Club sent three jumpers to the PyeongChang Olympics this year. Mike Glasder, Kevin Bickner and Casey Larson, from Cary, Wauconda, and Barrington, Illinois respectively, are all in South Korea representing the United States. It's the first time Norge has sent athletes to the Games, and with Glasder and Bickner both qualifying for the Large Hill Final, which takes place tonight, it's sure not to be the last time.

I love my hometown more than I can say, mostly for my large second family that still allows me to call it home, and I couldn't be prouder that it has a role in representing our country to the rest of the world. I can only hope we have a few more Olympic athletes we get to cheer on in the future.

Song of the Week - "Back On Tracks" by Verbz & Mr Slipz

Two weeks in a row with some UK hip-hop talent. I know some people who don't love the English accent on hip-hop tracks, but accent or not, if the beat and the bars are good, I'm on board. In the case of "Back On Tracks," I was hooked by the old school bassline and piano samples laid down by Mr Slipz, and Verbz flows over the track with ease. The rest of the album has a similar vibe, with "Gutter Tales" as another standout.

Cubs Highlight of the Week - Pitchers and Catchers and YUUUU!

BASEBALL IS BACK! And boy, am I excited to be a Cubs fan. There have been quite a few storylines across baseball this offseason. Shohei Ohtani, Stanton to the Yankees, the Marlins cleaning house, arguably the most stagnant offseason of all time and a free agent spring training. As a Cubs fan, the big highlights have obviously been the signing of Brandon Morrow, slimming down of Schwarber and, finally, the signing of Yu Darvish.

I've heard plenty of takes on the Darvish signing. There's been lots of worry about his pitch tipping in the World Series, but I refuse to let a two game sample ruin an otherwise immaculate track record. Others are sad to see Arrieta go, but honestly, something about Arrieta toward the end of his tenure with the Cubs made me feel pretty lukewarm about him. I felt it was time to move on, and wouldn't have been too excited if the only big move the Cubs made all offseason was resigning him. I hope the guy goes on and finds more success, but to me, it just felt like the right time for Arrieta and the Cubs to part ways.

I don't want to steal all of my takes from Bleacher Nation, but their writers, Brett Taylor and Michael Cerami, continuously make great points. To basically summarize this post, the addition of one player, Darvish, makes the Cubs better in three ways. Right off the bat, of course it strengthens the rotation. When you've got a front end of Darvish, Quintana, Lester and Hendricks, you're going to make some hitters nervous. Darvish also makes the rotation a lock. Before his signing, Mike Montgomery would've slotted into the fifth spot. Nothing against Montgomery, I really do think he could be an effective starter, but he's also invaluable for the Cubs as a spot starter and long reliever in the bullpen. Not many teams have the luxury of a guy like him that can switch between the bullpen and the rotation as easily as he does. That leads to the final point, the improvement in starting depth. God forbid something happens to a pitcher in the starting rotation, you've got an extremely capable Montgomery to step in. Had Montgomery been the fifth starter, who knows who would have been waiting in the wings as the sixth starter. Zastryzny? Jen-Ho Tseng?

There are a lot of reasons to be excited for the 2018 season, and while Spring Training isn't quite baseball being back, I'll take baseball in any form I can get it. Let's go, Cubbies.

[swipestream]

RPGS, Veblen, and Isms

Back when I was working on my masters, I had to take some PhD classes in econometrics. To do that I had to go to the economics department, fill out paperwork and ask them to let me into the classes (Since I wasn’t a PhD student, the department was rightly worried I might find the classes highly challenging. I did eek out a passing grade though.) While waiting to be seen, one of the professors walking by struck up a conversation with me. After about 5 minutes, he said to me (I paraphrase): “I like you. You should read Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class. You’re just the right type of weird to enjoy it.” Turns out he was the professor I was going to have daily 6 hour long classes with that summer. He was pretty weird himself, but in a good way.

Wanting to be more into economics than I really was, and wanting to impress the professor, I picked up a copy of the book. (by the way, it’s public domain and you can find it for free online if you care to read it. PDF EPUB and other formats). Published in 1899, it’s a bit of a slog full of unfamiliar words and archaic structure, but that professor was right, I was just the type of weird to enjoy it. Oddly enough, for an economic treatise written seventy years before the creation of role playing games, it provides an interesting lens to view them through and insights into the nature of them.

(Veblen can also be used to explain a lot of human behavior both on the personal and macro scale. As this is not a political site, I leave you to draw your own conclusions on that front. I’m 100% certain that you can find multiple sites on the topic elsewhere on the internet if you want to read up on it.)

Veblen’s main thesis is that despite the complaints of the economists of his day, and non-economists still today, human behavior is more or less rational despite appearances to the contrary. Of course, keep in mind that humans are notoriously bad at evaluating small short term vs larger long term gains, and are often self benefit driven, both a legacy from when life was nasty, brutish, and short.  To explain seeming lapses in rationality, Veblen explains the concept of agency and status and posits that all so called irrational behavior are attempts to gather one or the other:

Agency: Veblen’s concept of agency is related to but distinct from the commonly discussed gaming concept of player agency. It consists of two parts- the ability to take powerful actions which hold the appearance of consciousness (appearance of consciousness means things like powerful storms have agency even though we now know they’re not conscious) and the ability to impose your will on others with agency. Thus the farmer does not have agency, or has very little, because he imposes his will on plants, which do not have agency; but the hunter, shaman, and warrior do because they impose their will on beasts, storms, and other warriors. Note that how one imposes this will is irrelevant. The warrior who imposes his will through brute violence and the rogue who imposes his will through clever action both have equal agency. In your typical game, there is a ladder of agency. PCs, foes and important NPCs have agency, players and GM influence them with their agency, and above all of that, playing the part of the capricious whimsical gods are the dice which, much like the storms of our ancestors, seem to have a will all their own.

Status: Status is the acknowledgement, deference, and special treatment we give to those with greater agency. In early or brutal civilizations it’s not mouthing off to the warriors because if you do they might just run you through. In more abstract examples, it’s not mouthing off to the king because even though you’re pretty sure you could take him in a fight, his soldiers will run you through and his bureaucrats will see to it that your taxes are doubled.

Veblen explains that the primary way of gathering agency is the heroic exploit, and that the primary currency used is courage and cunning. Enter the typical archetype of the warrior, hunter, and trickster. But over time he argues it becomes more difficult to show off just how heroic you are. Trophies and treasure gained in exploit can only take you so far. Enter two more ways to show how much agency you have: conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. Eventually heroes have so much accumulated riches from exploit that they can afford to blow those resources on ever more extravagant goods and services and on long periods doing nothing of value. Remember back to the carousing rules from the early Conan RPG and the early DnD rules for building your own keep, crafting magic items and doing spell research. All these things signal to the rest of the world just how formidable you are. Different RPG archetypes focus on different mixes of these four building blocks of agency and status.

Courage: imposing agency via force of arms and brute strength

Cunning: imposing agency via cleverness or guile

Conspicuous Consumption: showing status via display of resources gathered in heroic exploit

Conspicuous Leisure: showing status via not performing otherwise productive work when not involved in exploit

Veblen says that the expression of these qualities has social value in that you get special treatment for having or displaying them. They are largely expressed in the form of what Veblen terms invidious comparison. I am stronger than that person, I am smarter than this other person, more moral than this person, etc. More abstractly, they can be expressed through trophies of exploits, what resources you have, what groups you associate with, who you work for etc. In the extreme, one who successfully gathers large amounts of resources via exploit can’t spend it all themselves, and may even hire retainers whose only job is to spend their lord’s money.  Interestingly, some of these expressions are cultural and change over time. Recent studies have shown that modern Americans are less inclined to give others status for having lots of leisure time and lots of expensive possessions, which were major status symbols in Veblen’s time and are still (apparently) status symbols in other places. (article 1 and article 2).

What in particular struck me while reading through the book was that a large part of RPGs was an attempt to emulate characters with far more agency, and thus status, than players generally have. That’s of course an oversimplification. Different people play RPGs for lots of different reasons, and you can probably find some that don’t hinge on playing with agency, but I can’t think of any . Feel free to correct me if you like. What this means is that in theory RPG experiences featuring the right balance of character agency (enough agency to impose their will on others but not so much that opponents don’t appear to have agency of their own) should be a more satisfying play experience, and giving the characters markers of agency and status should also lead to satisfying play. In fact, one could write an entire book digging through Theory Of The Leisure Class and pulling out elements to enhance games*.

As a side note, plenty of playstyles and even problem playstyles can be chalked up to Veblen’s agency. On the innocuous side is pushing for more PC vs NPC agency. On the destructive side is outright player vs player or player vs GM agency. If you’ve ever wondered what the player who enjoys making everyone else’s experience miserable is getting out of it, this is it: imposing their agency over that of the other players and GM, and if they can’t be convinced to pick a more suitable target, they should be shown the door before it gets worse.

However, even though Veblen explains RPG motivations very well it turns out that taken to extremes, pursuing agency and status also explains a variety of the more unsavory elements of humanity: Slavery, discrimination, sexism, racism etc. are all big markers for agency and status. Some of them, like slavery, are a direct application of agency. One person has the agency to literally own another. Isms are a little more abstract but boil down to an imbalance of status between two groups. If you belong to the group an imbalance favors, you benefit from that status boost. You can see the evidence of this in plenty of the fiction that inspired the RPG hobby. Conan, for example has a scene in at least every other story where he forces himself on a woman and halfway through the act, she stops struggling to get him off her and starts struggling to get her panties off, because he’s just so manly and good at kissing it changes her mind, and Robert E Howard doesn’t even hold a candle to John Norman in that regard. A lot of early space opera sci-fi was heroic American vs evil communist Asians . . . innnn spaaaaace! There are still plenty of vestiges of this era sticking around too. All dwarves are racist against elves, elves are racist against . . . mostly dwarves, but also everyone. Lots of sentient species are kill on sight morally repugnant, and every half-orc gets the one good half orc treatment.

So, TLDR: RPGs are big power fantasies about imposing your will on others and everyone fawning all over you for doing it, and taken too far the natural extension of this is some of the worst parts of the human experience. Lovely.

Let me put on my devil’s advocate hat for a moment and just take things too far. If the above is true, wouldn’t featuring all of those uncomfortable bits of bad human behavior and allowing PCs to wallow in them make your game a more powerful expression of what RPGs are all about, and wouldn’t your game be better for it? Shouldn’t I be saying: “All this stuff adds to the fantasy that is explicitly the entire point of the game, so put it in your game, lots of it!”

That would be an awfully weird position to take, wouldn’t it? Turns out it’s a tempting position, but not necessarily a good one. First, there’s more than enough opportunity for heroic exploit, agency and status in your average game. Dipping into the more problematic aspects of agency just isn’t necessary. Even if you wanted to, most are very sensitive subjects and should be handled with care and only with complete group buy-in. And of course if you don’t take sensitive issues seriously, like other problem play styles, you run the very real risk of trading in game status for out of game status (i.e.: you get labeled a jerk and no one wants to play with you because you don’t respect others’ boundaries.)

But, can dealing with these difficult extremes of agency and status in your game be done without issues? Yes, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. On the extreme end, with player buy-in you can absolutely play an evil game with PCs that push the envelope. In a more traditional game, you can include these issues but reserve them for villainous NPCs that heroic PCs put a stop to. You can include lesser versions of them (the faux racism of all dwarves and elves). You can reserve involuntary traits indicating a lesser status for non sentient or irredeemably evil beings (golems and demons are OK to pick on because even though their status is linked to race one is a mindless automaton, the other is literally made of evil. If your golems and demons don’t follow that mold, things get hazier. This is where the “all orcs are evil” problems come from. Are orcs inherently evil like in Lord of the Rings, or do they fall in a spectrum like most fantasy races?) In fact, these could lead to some interesting introspective role playing moments. Nothing groundbreaking. All common enough that this is not the first time you’ve heard of them.

So that’s it. That’s the short version of viewing role playing games through the lens of Veblen’s Theory Of The Leisure Class, and the problems that come with it. Hopefully it’s an interesting perspective.

    * Writing said book has been on my “someday projects” list for quite some time. Also feel free to let me know if that sounds lame and I should let it languish or if it sounds awesome and I should move it up the list

RPGS, Veblen, and Isms published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi